The Story of the Marauders
by SlytherinPrincessL
Summary: Read about the Marauders and Lily and her gang through their years at Hogwarts and beyond. See in which way they grow into adults and their experiences and troubles. Some AU stuff but based on and most of the canon stuff from J K Rowling
1. Chapter 1

Adults say that magic is something kids believe in when they are young. They grow out of it. Magic is not real, that's what everyone says, and almost everyone believes. Some still hold on to that tiny bit of hope that there might be magic out there somewhere in the world. But they would never say their Believes out loud to other people. No way!

Mr. Thomas Evans loved magic stories as a child and he loved reading them to his two precious daughters, Petunia and Lily. Some would say that it was weird, that Lily still liked to hear her daddy read her some magic stories and that Petunia; though only being a few years older, hadn't listened to these kinds of stories in ages.  
Mr. Evans didn't think much of it, for he loved his youngest daughter oh so very much, so he continued reading her magical bedtime stories every night. His wife, Rose Evans, didn't mind, she loved hearing those stories too, she grew up with them for a long time.  
Mr. and Mrs. Evans loved their life, their little house with a nice garden, their two daughters, who grew up so fast. Petunia being a teenager already, though much to Mr. Evans dismay, wore make up, hung out with her friends, and most upsettingly, with boys.  
Lily, having turned 11 in December, was so different than her sister, she loved helping her dad with the flower garden, baking with her mom and reading books.  
A typically normal family.

So it did scare Rose Evans, on this lovely Saturday noon, that while she was making some scones, a high pitched scream came from the garden and Petunia came running in screaming hysterically. Rose Evans walked outside to their little garden to find her husband holding Lily, who had awestruck eyes and an owl sitting on her chair with what appeared to be a letter tied to a tiny leg.  
"Thomas, dear, why is there an owl on my chair?" she asked.  
"I don't know honey. But get away from it. I'll make it leave." her husband answered. At that her youngest daughter screamed: "But daddy, it's holding something. Look! There on his leg." She pointed to the envelope.  
Mrs. Evans made a move towards to bird, but her husband yelled out for her to stay away from the bird. She stepped back scoffing and let her husband get the letter. As soon as the envelope was gone, the bird flew off.  
Mr. Evans looked at it and said:" Lily, my little flower. This is addressed to you."  
"To me?"  
He nodded and handed her the letter reluctantly.

Lily being the eager and adventurous person she was opened it. 3 letters fell out.  
She picked up the first one and read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

 _Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc. ,Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

 _Dear Miss Evans,  
We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.  
Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31. July_

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Minerva McGonagall  
Deputy Headmistress_

Lily's mother looked at the list of necessities: "The Standard book of Spells (Grade 1), a History of Magic, a pointed hat, cauldron and a wand? What is this? Is this a joke?"  
"Apparently not," Mr. Evans said, while looking at the third letter, "Here is a letter from this Albus Dumbledore. It says _'Dear Mr. and Mrs. Evans. I know this is a lot to take in but I assure you that your daughter, Lily Evans, is in fact a witch and has a place at this most wonderful school. As I assume you don't know where Diagon Alley is, I would like to invite myself for tea tomorrow, July 12_ _th_ _,noon exactly, and I will explain everything and take your daughter supply shopping.  
I do hope you will consider this magnificent proposition of having your daughter join our school. Sincerely Albus Dumbledore, title, title, title.'_ If this is a joke than they would have gone to a whole lot of length to make this look real."  
Lily piped in "But what if it is real?" Her mother looked at her daughter, then at her husband and then sighed "We'll see if this Headmaster shows up tomorrow and then we will go from there, how about it?"

They agreed to it and turned around to find Petunia standing in the door.  
"You cannot think that this is real! This is just something weird from the people in Lily's class", she declared.  
Her mother looked dazzled, "Why wouldn't they like Lily?"  
"Because she is different, she does weird things sometimes and they think she is a freak!"  
Mr. Evans roared "My daughter is not a freak!" Mrs. Evans piped in to that "What kind of things? What are you talking about Petunia?"  
"She like opens flowers when she looks at them, or she would make something fly or break, when she is angry."  
"Petunia! You promised me you wouldn't tell." Lily screamed.  
"Lily! Somebody sent an owl to you, and made up a wizard school, just because they think you are a freak."  
"I am not a freak!"  
"Then stop doing that freaky stuff, and stop reading magic stories. It's not normal in your age. No one reads magic stories when they are older than 6."

Mr. Evans had had enough of his daughters bickering. "Petunia that is quite enough! Go to your room. You too, Lily. And no more funny business at school. Is that understood?"  
Lily nodded and went upstairs with her head hanging.  
Petunia didn't move a bit.  
"Petunia. You heard your father. Go to your room."  
"Why? What did I do wrong? I don't do that freak stuff."  
"Petunia your sister is not a freak!"  
"Then why do I have to go to my room?"  
Mr. Evans almost yelled "Because apparently you have not helped your sister with these things in school. And because I need some time to think, alone. With nobody interrupting me and asking questions. Just me and mom. Talking. Now up to your room." 

Lily heard her sister huff and slam the door to her room. She wished she would have come to her and made her feel better. But lately, her sister started acting weird around her. Ever since that accident at the playground, where she jumped off the swing and flew a little bit and made a flower grow faster than it would have.  
What if her class mates were right? What if she was a freak? She certainly did not want to be one. She just couldn't help it. Weird things happened when she was sad or angry or lonely. And she had those feelings a lot in school. Not only would her sister not do anything with her but everyone else thought she was weird because of her red flaming hair. And of course the weird incidents that happened.  
Lily didn't have friends. Her parents thought that she was just being in a troubled phase and that she would get used to it all soon.  
She so wanted to be normal, like her sister.

Late in the night, Lily still couldn't sleep. She kept thinking why weird things kept happening to her. She could also still hear her parents talking down in the kitchen.  
She sat on the stairs and listened to the discussion.  
Mr. Evans "We can't just let a weirdo in our house tomorrow."  
"Thomas, if he is a wizard he will not have a problem with a door."  
"Rose, how is this possible? What happened there? Only yesterday we didn't even think about the possibility of our daughter being a witch. And now?".  
" I don't know. But I feel horrible. How could I not know that my daughter is miserable in her school? She was always such a happy kid. And now, she has a hard time finding friends?"  
"Rose, stop. We couldn't know this. The real question is if we, if she really is a witch, let her go to this school."  
"I don't know. I mean we have to consider that she might be happier there. But we probably won't see her a lot then. And I don't want to lose my child."  
"We will see. I only want my little flower to be happy."  
"I know Thomas, I do too."

Lily crept back in her bed, not feeling worse or better. She couldn't sleep and she really wanted to see the stars right now. She blinked and suddenly her room was full of stars. She smiled to herself, maybe she was a witch.  
With that thought and the stars around her she started sleeping.


	2. Chapter 2

Lily woke up around 9 the next day; she stretched and went to the bathroom. She took a really quick shower and brushed her teeth and then hopped down the stairs.  
Her parents were already sitting there, eating breakfast; she sat down beside her dad and took a waffle and some cream.

"Lily, dear, I want you to wear something nice today, when this Professor comes" her mother said.  
Lily nodded, she couldn't believe she was actually a witch, and she really hoped her parents would let her go.  
Petunia scoffed "You really think someone is gonna show up? This was a pathetic joke."  
"Petunia that is enough!" Thomas Evans said "I do not want to hear one more thing."  
Lily sprinted upstairs to put on her favorite shirt, a dark green one with Love written on it, and a black skirt along with some black shoes.  
She was so excited that she didn't even realize how fast time flew by only by her mom calling her to come downstairs because they only had 10 minutes left.

Rose Evans looked at her daughter and smiled "You look good Lily."  
"Thanks mom."  
"I want you to be honest with this Professor Dumbldrier…"  
"Dumbledore, dear" Mr Evans read from the letter.  
"Yes him. If you want to go tell him and us, if you don't then say that as well, whatever fear you have just tell us."  
"Okay mom." Mrs. Evans hugged her daughter. "I love you darling."  
"You too mom."

At 12 sharp the doorbell rang and Lily sat up a bit straighter.  
Her mother got up to open the door.  
Lily heard a voice "Ah you must be Mrs. Evans, I love the roses on the front lawn, you must have a green thumb, I must admit I sadly don't."  
Lily could hear her mother's please voice "Oh ehm thank you very much Mr. Dumbledore. Please come in, would you like something to drink?"  
"Oh a nice tea would be very nice thank you."  
Her mother gestured him towards the living area where Lily sat with her father. As the professor entered the room they both stood up. Mr. Evans greeted Dumbledore and he then turned to Lily.  
"Ah" he looked her up and down "yes, hello Lily." Lily shook his hand and said "I am very pleased to meet you."  
They sat down as her mother brought the tea and some scones.  
"Thank you very much Mrs. Evans."  
"Thanks dear."  
"So I assume you must have some questions, especially you Lily."  
"Yes we do, first of all, is this school really real?"  
Dumbledore chuckled and scratched his beard lightly. "Oh yes it is, it is a very beautiful school. I wish I could show you some pictures but I do not want to spoil Lily's excitement of seeing the castle for the first time. It truly is a sight to behold."  
"She truly is a witch then? And this is no joke?" Rose Evans looked shocked and happy at the same time.  
"Yes, Miss Lily Evans is truly a witch. And we are very excited to have her. I do understand this is all very confusing and shocking for you, most Muggles, non wizarding people that is, are under shock once they find out their children are magical."  
"So Severus was right? I am a witch." Lily piped in. Dumbledore looked at her interestedly.  
"Severus?"  
"Snape, Severus Snape. He once saw me perform magic on a playground."  
"Ah yes Mister Snape has also received his letter and will be joining you hopefully. But my dear Lily, after you do consent to going and with your parents approval of course, I need to ask you to not perform any magic in front of Muggles and over the time you are not in our world, so back here during vacations until you are 17, which is the year of adulthood in our world."  
"Oh of course, I understand. I didn't know."  
"No of course not, how could you? Seeing as you never knew anyone who could lead you through this."  
"Is this, being a witch random? I mean just anyone could be a witch?"  
"Yes, it can happen, though this family has had a few witches in your line. You great-great aunt, Lily, a Bertha Evans, was a witch as well. It can skip generations or it can happen as you said randomly. But there is a record that finds all Muggle born Wizards and witches. And Lily is one of them."  
"So it is only 'muggleborn' witches and wizards?"  
Dumbledore chuckled "No it is far more complex. There are Purebloods, as well. People who come from a line of wizards and witches, ancient families these are. I do think Lily will have contact with a lot of them. Then there are Halfbloods, coming from magical and muggle families. Most of the wizards and witches are this by now. There are only very few Pureblood families left and they tend to stick to being Purebloods, so marrying inside the Purebloods, but none of this matters."  
Lily was baffled.  
"How much does this school cost?"  
"Nothing Mr. Evans, only school supplies and food at times cost something. But there is different money, I will explain later."  
"Lily has been bullied before, in her school, people saying she was different." Lily's mothers voice was filled with concern.  
"That is not uncommon with muggleborns. Most of them feel out of place and as soon as the magic starts it only gets worse from there, so parents are usually very happy for them to go to Hogwarts."  
"Will she be happier there?"  
"I believe so, and I am not only saying that hoping to gain a new member for our school, but in Hogwarts she will learn to control and use her powers properly and she will experience things others can't."  
"Lily dear." Mrs. Evans turned to her daughter "Would you like to go. We only want you to be happy."  
Lily looked at her parents and then at Dumbledore. "I have a question."  
"Of course."  
"Why isn't Petunia, my sister, a witch as well?"  
"Some people do not have that spark of magic in them Lily, I am very sorry."  
She nodded. "Where will I find all this stuff on the list?"  
"OH I will show you and your parents around in Diagon Alley. Very nice place, we might even see some of the people who will be joining you next school year."  
"Mom, Dad, I really want to go."  
Mrs. Evans had tears in her eyes "Of course darling, but you must visit during … Christmas?"  
She looked at the old man "Yes Christmas is the holiday where you can come home. Of course you can stay at Hogwarts but that is up to you."  
Lily smiled "Yes I'll come home over Christmas."  
Mr. Evans chuckled and asked "SO where is this Alley? Where we can buy the things for our Flower?"  
Dumbledore got up and said. "We need to go to London."


	3. Chapter 3

Lily was so astonished by everything that has been happening by now.  
Dumbledore asked the family to step outside and then asked if they had a car, we said yes and they drove to London. He gave them directions in which way to go, to a pub which was called the Leaky Cauldron.  
They stepped inside and everyone greeted Dumbledore, he waved and chuckled, led them through the back door and so they stood in front of a wall.

Lily's dad was the first to speak "So what now?"  
"Well, Mr. Evans I need to ask Lily to watch carefully now."  
She stepped up front and watched Dumbledore as he pressed several stones with his wooden stick, wand she presumed, and the wall began to change.  
She gaped, the street that opened itself in front of them was amazing. People dressed in the funniest robes walked around and were looking at things she had never even imagined before.  
"Welcome Lily, to Diagon Alley. The first thing we should do is go the Gringotts, the wizarding bank. There your parents can open an account for you."  
They agreed and started walking. Lily saw many things and wished she could see more. She was fascinated with everything.

The group arrived in Gringotts and Lily gasped. Little small creatures were roaming around, counting gold, talking to wizards.  
Dumbledore stepped to the front and introduced us to the Head Goblin as he informed the family.  
"This is Lily Evans, a young witch who would like to open an account here, by transferring Muggle money and wishing to receive Galleons and Sickles."  
The goblin looked at her and asked "She is not by any chance related to Bertha Evans?"  
The professor laughed "Why yes she is, it has only skipped a century."  
"Then you will find that there is already an Evans account open here, with some money left, of course we can always add to this amount."

Another goblin took them to a cart, and Lily can honestly say every roller coaster she has ever ridden does not compare to this. It was so fast and shakey, her mom looked a little green afterwards but she shrugged it off.  
Lily learned how to change their money, muggle that is, into wizarding money and was astonished to find a load of gold coins in the vault that was now hers.  
Dumbledore took out a purse and took some of the money and handed it to her stating it should be more than enough for everything they needed and maybe some other things.

After leaving Gringotts the group got her robes and cauldrons and almost everything they needed, except for a wand.  
Lily had gone a bit overboard with some of the books, getting 4 additional books because it was all so fascinating.  
Her parents even persuaded her to buy a magical camera, because the pictures could move. They said she should take pictures of everything because they want to see everything and relive her memories when she shares them with them during the holidays.

Dumbledore took Lily and her parents to Ollivanders, the wand maker. She stepped inside only to find two kids already in there.  
A girl with shoulder length long light brown hair with a sparkle of bronze in them. She wore a blue dress and white sandals and she was slightly taller than Lily was.  
The boy beside her had sandy blonde hair and wore a T-shirt and jeans with Converse. He looked a little worn out and tired but he smiled as the girl sighed in desperation.  
She started speaking. "Mr. Ollivander, I wish I wouldn't have to destroy everything in your shop to find the perfect wand for me."  
"Miss Parker. Patience. The wand chooses the witch, do not forget this. Let me work on Mr. Lupin here so I have some more time to think about your wand. Mr. Lupin your wand arm would be?"  
"My right one sir."  
"Very well, I remember your father well. Very good man, does he still work for the Non-Human Spirituous Apparitions?"  
"No sir, he now works for the Ministry in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."  
"Fascinating. Here try this one."  
He handed the boy a wand. The boy swung it and it broke a window.  
"Ah well, maybe this one. Very fine work 10¼" long, made of cypress, and contained a unicorn hair core. Very pliable."  
The boy took it and suddenly Mr. Ollivander smiled. "Yes, yes I believe we have found your wand."  
The boy thanked and paid. Mr. Ollivander then noticed Professor Dumbledore.  
"Ah Professor, I see you are taking a new student supply shopping, how very kind of you."  
The two kids turned around and the girl I now saw had beautiful blue-green eyes and a very beautiful face. She smiled at the Professor and curtseyed lightly. He smiled at her.  
"Hello Miss Parker."  
"Good day Professor."  
"You have not yet found your wand?"  
"Not yet Professor."  
"Well I do hope you will find one before the term starts. Hello Mr. Lupin."  
The boy smiled and greeted the old man.  
The girl turned back around and waited for Ollivander to hand her another wand.  
Apparently it was 10 1/2" long, made out of mahogany and the core was unicorn's hair. It glowed lightly and the girl laughed. "We finally found it." She paid and then turned to the boy "Come on Remus, we still have to get some new robes. I need one for the party tomorrow."  
"Sure thing."  
They started to walk towards the exit when the girl noticed Lily.  
"Hi are you going to Hogwarts too?"  
"Yes."  
"Wicked, I am Leah and this is Remus. We hope to see you on the train."  
"I am Lily and thanks."  
Leah smiled and took Remus arm, said goodbye to Mr. Ollivander and the Professor and made their way to another shop.

"She will be quite talented I presume Professor Dumbledore." Mr. Ollivander spoke.  
"Yes, her parents both are extremely good and she already showing great powers in her. Leah Parker will do great things in her life, Mr. Lupin as well."  
The wand maker nodded and turned to the red head.  
"Well Miss, you want a wand I assume."  
"Yes."  
He gave her one and she looked puzzled as what to do next. After being informed to give it a swing, she simply gave it a go and broke a lamp.  
She apologized a hundred times, while Ollivander stated that everything could be fixed.  
"Here, please try this one." He handed her another wand and informed them it was 10¼" long, made of willow, but she did not hear the rest for a warmth spread through Lily and something tingeling.  
"You have found your wand Miss Evans, it is very swishy, very good for Charms."  
We thanked him and paid.

"Where to next Professor?"  
"Maybe we should consider getting you an owl, so you can send letters home."  
"Oh yes darling that would be wise" Lily's mother chimed in.  
"Alright."

They made their way to the animal store and inside where Leah and Remus looking at owls.  
Never had she seen so many owls.  
Leah was laughing at something Remus said and she slung an arm around him.  
"Doll it is not that hard to choose one. Just pick the prettiest."  
"I am not choosing a pet on prettiness Leah."  
"But look at this one, all black and gorgeous. Nobody would see her during night flights."  
"True but I kinda like this orange white one here, apparently those are very fast and intelligent."  
"Trust Remus Lupin to go buy a pet based on intelligence."  
He laughed.  
"Miss Parker would you like an owl as well?"  
Leah turned to the salesman and replied "Oh no thank you. I already have an owl at home. A very pretty one." She added looking slightly at her friend.  
"Very well, please send my greetings to your father. We are very grateful for everything he has done for us."  
"I will and that reminds me, Daddy said Minx needed something for feather loss."  
"Oh of course, she is an older owl now, isn't she."  
"As old as I am. My father would also like to know if you accept baby owls?"  
"Yes very much so."  
"Then he will come by soon to drop off the little ones."  
"Very well. Tell him he is welcomed here at all times."  
They paid and turned around.  
"Professor how good to see you again. I expect we will see each other again tomorrow?"  
"Yes I am very delighted to come and thank your father once more for the invitation."  
"I will, but he speaks very highly of you at all times."  
Dumbledore chuckled "Will you be joining as well Mr. Lupin?"  
Remus Lupin nodded and smiled "Yes sir, looking forward to it."  
Leah laughed and then saw the Evans' "Oh hi Lily was it? Right?"  
"Yes."  
"You looking for an owl?" Remus asked.  
"They have awesome ones here, really pretty and intelligent."  
"Oh sod off Leah." Remus Lupin pushed her lightly.

They left and Lily picked out a beautiful auburn owl, we said our goodbyes to Dumbledore and he gave me my ticket for the train, he also explained how to enter the platform so I would not miss the train. 


	4. Chapter 4

To say that Lily was excited was an understatement. Never in her life have she been this giddy, not even when the ice cream truck exploded in front of their house and they got to eat all the ice cream.

The family was standing in front of the wall between platform 10 and 9, her parents couldn't go through because they were… well might as well get used to the word … Muggles.  
"Oh Lily dear please write as soon as you can and often, we want to hear all about it."  
"I will mom."  
She hugged her daughter tightly and kissed her cheeks "I love you darling."  
"I love you too mom."  
"Well my flower, time to go on this adventure. I really hope you enjoy it. I love you and I will miss you dearly."  
"You too daddy."  
Lily turned to her sister, she only came involuntarily.  
Lily knew what she did, writing a letter to Dumbledore and everything.

Lily saw Severus passing them and waving at her stating "I will find us a compartement Lily."  
She nodded.  
"Petunia I will miss you and hope you write me sometimes."  
"As if I wanted to touch one of those bloody owls, like yours. God why can't you just be normal Lily?"  
"Petunia!" her mother's voice grew angry, Petunia huffed and left without saying goodbye.  
Her parents started apologizing for her behavior but Lily was looking at a family, so perfect, she could have sworn she had seen them before.

She knew why instantly, the girl she saw at Ollivanders, Leah, was walking with her family towards the wall.  
A man waved to someone and the family suddenly stopped. They arranged themselves in with Leah and a girl who looked a lot like Leah only with blonde hair beside her, her arm around the little girl, a boy who had the same eyes as Leah stood behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. A little girl stood beside Leah with her hand in Leah's and of her mothers. Her mother was so beautiful, she looked like one of those supermodels, slim and with gorgeous dark blonde hair, her smile was beautiful and she was wearing what appeared to be high fashioned brands. Her husband stood on the other side with an arm around his eldest daughter.

A photographer stood in front of them and took some pictures. "How does it feel to finally go to Hogwarts Leah?"  
She smiled showing her perfectly placed and white teeth "I am really excited to finally go to school."  
"How does it feel to have another child going away?"  
"A new challenge coming up, now we must hurry."  
They broke apart and ran through the barrier.

"Lily wasn't that the girl we met in Ollivanders?"  
"Yes I think so."  
"Her parents must be something important."  
She hugged them once more and they said their goodbyes before Lily ran through the barrier. She was really scared that she would crash against the wall and all this was a joke, but Lily got through and stood in front of a giant red train.  
Lily couldn't even take it all in.  
Someone took her suitcase and put it on the train and she got in herself.  
She looked for Severus and found him in a compartment.  
"Hello Lily, glad you found me. Are you excited."  
"Very much so."  
She sat down beside him and they talked

 _Now the scene in which James and Lily and Severus and Sirius meet._

Lily glared at James and suddenly the compartment opened. Leah came in followed by Remus.  
Lily noticed how Sirius was looking her up and down and then smiled.  
"Hi, could we sit here?"  
"Yeah sure."  
"Great awesome, I am Leah and this is my best friend Remus Lupin."  
"Nice to meet you." Remus said.  
Leah turned to Lily, "Oh hi, Leane was it? No wait Lily?"  
She smiled "Yeah that's me."  
She then turned to Severus looked at him and waited then said to Lily "Your boyfriend don't speak?"  
"He is not my boyfriend and his name is Severus Snape."  
"Snape as in Eileen Snape? Did she ever work for the Ministry?"  
"Yes for a while now. How do you know that?" Severus said.  
"Because she would be the one person who knows probably almost everything about the Ministry." Sirius Black said in a sarcastic voice.  
Lily had had enough of his attitude "And why is that?"  
James Potter answered. "Because she is the Ministers daughter. Haven't seen you at any balls this year Leah."  
"Oh yeah, James Potter good to see you again. Love your mom, she always brings cookies. Yeah I was busy, and anyway they are not as interesting as one would presume."  
"Yeah, feel like I haven't seen you in forever and this is Sirius Black."  
She gasped "A Black and a Potter in the same compartment? A miracle."  
Black laughed. "I am nothing like my family."  
"I met some of your family at times, interesting. But I've never seen you at any banquets or balls or those sorts."  
"Was never allowed to go. Too big of a troublemaker for my mom and dad."  
Leah laughed.

"Remus your family works for the ministry as well?" James asked.  
"Yeah my dad. My mom's a muggle."  
"Awesome. How do you know Leah Parker?"  
Leah answered "His mom and my mom met during their pregnancy in some pregnant yoga class thing, and they met up after that and once they found out they both had somewhat magical life's they became best friends really fast and we were just constantly around each other. So instant besties, right bug?"  
"Yes, correct." And with that Remus Lupin ruffled Leah Parker's hair.

Lily piped up: "So that is why all these photographers were taking pictures of you, you are famous."  
"Well not me, but my parents yeah."

"Anyway Snape here was just talking about how he wants to be in Slytherin."  
"My dad was a Slytherin, cunning and ambitious." Leah stated.  
"You wanna be in it?" James looked at her.  
"Not really, the way it changed from what I heard, nothing like the way my dad used to describe it. He always said there were 2 groups the fairly decent ones- which obviously he was in- and the not so decent ones, these days apparently all of them aren't as decent as they were. But Sirius, it was Sirius right?" she did not wait for him to nod but continued "your family is pure Slytherin aren't I right?"  
"Yep, but my cousin Andi is awesome, she is nothing like the rest of my family, but is still in Slytherin."  
"You see there are exceptions. My dad was the first one to be a Slytherin, my older siblings are both in Gryffindor, like my mom."  
"Best house." James stated.  
"Well Siran, I do hope you will stand out as well, love people who go against the flow, don't you Srium?" she looked at Sirius and he looked at her before they both bursted out laughing.  
"You crack me up Leah." He stuck out his hand to her and she shook it.

Lily was shocked when Leah then turned to her "Do you know about the houses?"  
"Yes Severus told me about them."  
"Oh isn't he – I was going to say dashing but his hair says otherwise."  
James and Sirius burst out laughing and Remus chuckled lightly.  
Leah smirked "Ok that was lame, but anyway, Lily I really love your hair color. I saw your mom has almost the same. Totally wicked. I wish I had red hair, but I am glad I did not get stuck with blonde hair like my mom or my sister, it is so hard to find proper accessories."  
"Oi!" Remus screamed and shoved her.  
"Oh lighten up Remy." Everyone laughed.  
Severus poked Lily lightly and said "Would you like something to eat I hear the food cart rolling on."  
"Oh isn't that sweet" Sirius remarked "Snape here wants to buy a girl something to eat. Careful Lily with all the grease on him you might get sick afterwards."  
James added "And careful that he doesn't try to kiss you."  
Lily stood up "Come Severus let's look for a different compartment."  
"Oh Lily, you don't have to leave, boys will be boys, they are just weird."  
"If you want to Leah you can join us."  
"Oh I'd love to but I want to catch up with James here, haven't seen him in so long and Sirius is funny as well."  
"Oh maybe I will see you later then."  
"For sure" And then she hugged her.


	5. Chapter 5

Leah must say those boys cracked her up for good.  
They got off the train and Hagrid, a huge man waved the first years over to the boats. Leah took one with Remus obviously and Sirius Black and James Potter.  
Those boys had become fast friends and Leah must say she did enjoy their company a lot. They were fun and somewhat different than some other boys she had met before.  
Hogwarts was the most beautiful thing Leah has ever seen in her life. It was gigantic. The pictures mom and dad had at home did not rival the real thing.

Leah always wondered what Michelle was on about every time she came back from Hogwarts. Now here she was. Knowing exactly what she meant by beauty that can never be captured in anything.  
"It's breathtaking isn't it?" a voice said beside her.  
She looked over and saw Sirius Black looking at her and then the castle again. A smile on his face.  
"It's beautiful. More than anything I have ever seen before."  
"That was before you met me."  
Leah laughed "Of course, oh high and mighty Sirius."  
He laughed.

They got off the boats and were given a speech by Professor McGonagall. She had heard the speech now for the third time as Michelle and Ryan had told her that speech.  
She looked over and saw Lily looking anxious and excited at the same time.  
Leah nudged Remus. "You think she knows what we have to do?"  
"Oh you know how those rumors spread according to Michelle, apparently someone on the train told everyone that we had to battle a dragon."  
She could not stop herself from laughing out loud. Thank god McGonagall wasn't here at that moment.  
Lily looked at Leah and she smiled at her, she smiled back.  
The professor came back and they entered the Great Hall. It was incredible. Nothing ever looked this amazing.  
Remus beside his best friend was in awe

Leah saw her brother sitting beside their sister. Both smiling and waving at Leah and Remus, their friends did the same.  
Leah her brother was appointed Head Boy and this was his last year, which made Leah very sad but happy for him. He wanted to work for St. Mungos Hospital when he was done. Their parents were really excited.

The group stopped in front of a stool and an old hat.  
He began to sing.  
After that McGonagall called us up one by one.  
"Emma Andrews!"  
A small girl with blonde hair walked up the steps, she put on the hat and after a few moments it shouted "GRYFFINDOR!"  
"Sirius Black" the boy besides Leah got up and sat on the stool and looked at the crowd, the mass of students held their breath. He saw James and smiled, then looked over at Leah and winked, she smiled.  
"GRYFFINDOR!" Everyone began to murmur as he smiled and made his way to the applauding table.  
Other names did mean nothing to Leah and then "Lily Evans."  
She saw her shaking lightly and then put the hat on.  
"Gryffindor." More applause.  
"Remus Lupin" Leah nudged him and he smiled and he got sorted to Gryffindor, he smiled at his best friend since forever and Michelle and Ryan clapping the loudest and hollering. They always adored Remus.  
"Leah Parker."  
She smiled and walked up, her brother shouted out to Leah and she waved.  
The hat was put on her head and she heard him talking.  
"Ah yes, another Parker, very good family you have. You do have the same ambition as your father but Slytherin is not the choice for you, loyal, intelligent, creative, brave, good-hearted. You got almost every quality of all the Hogwarts houses.  
But I know where to put you.  
GRYFFINDOR"

Leah grinned and heard her siblings and Remus shouting and clapping the loudest.  
She sat down beside Remus opposite of Sirius and they both smiled.  
James was put in the same house and sat beside Leah and Peter Pettigrew as well. Another girl named Caitlin Smith.  
Two other people were put in Gryffindor house, David and Elise Momsten. They seemed a bit odd but who was I to judge Leah thought to herself.

Dumbledore gave a speech and the tables filled with food, everyone was awestruck, it was so amazing.  
During dinner Michelle came up to her younger sister and hugged both her and Remus. "Oh I just knew you guys would be here, we have to write mom and dad later, you too Remus. Bet your parents are eager to find out where you got in."  
"So how is it that you did not get Prefect?"  
"Oh Miss Alana and Mr. George were just a tiny bit better than me apparently." Leah's sister said while looking affectionally at her best friends.  
"You are Leah's sister?" Sirius Black said from across the table.  
She looked at him and smiled "Yeah, you are the Black kid right? There has been some talk."  
"Yes I am and sure proud to be in this house. Now I really wanna know what your mother looks like."  
We looked at him "Why that?"  
"Because you both are gorgeous."  
Leah laughed and so did her sister. "Better watch out Leah, he will be a lady's man."  
She hugged them once more and left back to her friends.

"Lily cause you are from the Muggle world, do you have like these non moving pictures?"  
She looked at Leah baffled. "Yes why."  
"I see them at Remus house every time and I love them. We even took some at one time. Do you have some with you."  
"Yes."  
"Non moving pictures?" James Potter repeated.  
Lily looked at him and scowled. "Yes you have a problem with that?"  
"No I just think it's weird and different."  
She turned away from him to talk to Caitlin.  
Leah shrugged at him and looked over at Sirius. He was looking straight at her and then grinned. She smiled at him then stuck her tongue out at him and took a piece of his chocolate cake.  
"Oi!"  
"It looked really good and it really is."  
He smirked at Leah.  
Leah laughed and continued her conversation with Remus.

Alana, Leah her sister's best friend guided the first years to the Gryffindor Common Room and showed them the dorms.  
Leah, Lily, Emma, Caitlin and Elise shared one since they were the only girls which were first year Gryffindors.

Lily seemed so scared and looked at everything in awe. Caitlin looked a little timid, kind of shy and Emma already sat on her bed and was sorting through her clothes. Elise had her curtains shut.  
Leah started walking towards her bed.  
"So ladies, I am Leah Parker, and I only know one of you by name. Lily. The rest of you are?"  
Emma looked at her and smiled. She had blonde hair and dark eyes, dark blue turning into brown. She had thin lips which were pink and coated in gloss, overall she was very pretty. "Emma Andrews, future actress/ model."  
"Nice to meet you Emma."  
"I am Caitlin Smith." A small timid voice said, small, a little bit of baby fat still on her, but she was cute and she looked scared as shit.  
"Are you a little freaked out about being here?"  
"Don't be mean to her." Lily said.  
Leah turned to her. "Lily I am not, I am merely asking questions. It is just my way, I am blunt and a little loud even, but I am adorable as well."  
Emma laughed and Caitlin looked like she really wanted to.  
"Listen Caitlin, I get that this is weird and new but it'll be so much fun. My siblings are here and they love it so much, said it is something so incredible and you meet awesome people here. And I am super excited, getting to know you guys better and having an awesome first year."  
"I am sorry Leah, but these guys you were around today made fun of Severus."  
"Lily, those guys are hilarious. So funny and creative and very nice."  
"And cute" Emma piped in.  
"And cute, so they took a jab at someone, it's gonna happen. They are guys. My brother still acts that way, so no biggie."  
"Maybe they will behave better tomorrow. But I am really tired now; it was really stressful."  
"Alright good night Lily."  
"Night."

We heard snoring coming from the bed with Elise in it. Strange person.  
A knock was on the door and someone entered. Michelle.  
"Hello girls, Leah. I just wanted to make sure you are okay and that if you need anything you know where I am, only a few doors down."  
"Thanks Michelle."  
"Tomorrow I would say you guys wake up in time to make it to breakfast at 7.30, that's when it starts so you will have enough time to find your first class and everything."  
"Okay, goodnight."  
"Nighty girls."


	6. Chapter 6

**So this is chapter 6. They are getting a bit longer. Honestly the hardest part for me to write this story is year 1 and 2. For the other years I have big ideas but I wanted to write years 1 and 2 as well.  
I would love it if you guys could review and give me some feedback please. Thanks a lot**

 **Leah xx**

James woke up to the sound of two people talking. It was Remus and Sirius, the two were talking about Quidditch, which team was the best. Apparently they agreed and were now talking about the best moves and the best games.

"Morning guys."  
"Good morning James." Remus said and Sirius looked at him and smiled widely.  
"What time is it?"  
"6.45. Enough time for you to do what you have to do before we go down to breakfast."  
"Sure okay, you guys were already in the bathroom?"  
"Sure were, but there is not a lot you can do with already perfect looks."  
"You really are full of yourself Sirius."  
"I try."  
They laughed and James went into the bathroom.  
It was certainly an eventful day yesterday. He needed to write to his parents soon, to let them know everything is alright and he made some good friends already.  
Peter came into the bathroom and went into one of the showers, he did not seem like a morning person.  
James went back out to find Sirius standing in front of his trunk looking for something apparently.  
"What you looking for man?" he asked him.  
"Something to wear."  
"We have to wear school uniforms, we have lessons today." Remus piped in who was already putting his clothes into one of the dressers.  
"But can't we decide what to wear underneath it for ourselves, like the shirt and pants?"  
"Afraid not."  
"How lame."

James chuckled and opened his trunk and put on some clean socks and started putting on his robes.  
A knock was heard on the door and a head poked in.  
It was Leah.  
"Morning guys."  
"Good morning." They said in unison.  
"Remus, did you see these uniforms. I am not even allowed to wear a decent shirt underneath it, I have to wear this blouse. Since when do I wear blouses?" She scoffed and sat on Remus bed.  
"Told you." Sirius said.  
"You annoyed by these robes too?" the brunette haired girl asked him.  
"Well growing up with unlimited clothing I do find this quite irritable, that we have to wear the same thing at all times."  
"Until classes are over." Remus said.  
Leah gasped. "I hadn't even thought about the fact that we would need to wear this every day. Oh no, there will be some changes in the outfits during the course of the days."  
"Leah, don't do something that will get you into trouble already. I promised your mom I would keep you out of it."  
"Oh Remus, doll I would never."  
She skipped over to his closet and helped him unpack.

James looked at the fifth bed, which curtains were closed, the bed that belonged to David. He went straight to bed yesterday and did not say a word to any of them.  
"Should we wake him?" he gestured to the bed.  
"Don't bother, he woke up at 5 and got ready and left, weird fellow that one is." Sirius remarked.  
"He's the twin brother of that girl that got sorted into Gryffindor too right?" Remus asked.  
"Yes and she was gone around 5.30 too. Did not say a word to us. They seem kind of out of it to be honest."  
"You should not judge people that you do not know Leah, very unpolite. As is talking about them behind their back."  
"Remus."  
"Yes?"  
"Shut up."  
Everyone laughed and got ready, Leah decided they were taking too much time and dragged Remus behind her to breakfast, stating she was starving, greeting Peter with a wave and a giant smile and hello and they were gone.

Peter looked baffled.  
"You alright Peter?"  
He looked at James shocked and shrugged.  
Sirius laughed "Never had a pretty girl smile at you?"  
Peter said "Why would I think she is pretty?"  
"Oh don't play stupid with me, everyone can see she is pretty, and looking at her sister she will one day be drop-dead-gorgeous. I acknowledge beauty."  
"I believe what Peter was trying to say is that he is not yet interested in girls. Understandable, according to my dad, who started noticing girls in his third year."  
"Bollocks. If I find someone attractive I will tell them. Like this, James, that shirt looks splendid on you, regally even. But on me it looks ten times better."  
"Dude we are wearing the same shirt."  
"Still looks better on me."  
All three of them laughed and they went downstairs towards the Great Hall. They found Remus and Leah sitting opposite of the other three Gryffindor girls, the red haired being Lily. James sat beside the blonde haired one and she smiled at him. Peter sat beside him and Sirius opposite of James and besides Leah.  
Lily was talking to Remus about their class schedule and our lessons with Caitlin, a light brown haired girl with brown eyes, leaving some comments and Peter sometimes asking questions. Leah and Emma were talking about how to change the school uniforms without breaking any rules while Sirius was talking to me and the two girls, Leah and Emma.  
"James what do you think. Wearing different skirts every day would still be acceptable. Right?"  
Emma looked at him and waited.  
"I got no idea."  
"I have some red skirts, but also green and purple and blue and ugh this is gonna suck."  
Leah added "Right, as soon as class is over after lunch I will go and get changed"  
"Me too."  
"Me three." Sirius remarked and they laughed again.

A guy with dark brown hair kind of like Leahs walked into the Hall with some friends, wearing the famous Head Boy Badge James's dad had shown him, which he still had from his time of being Head Boy.  
He walked straight up to Leah and hugged her from behind.  
"Ryan."  
"Leah. Everything okay?"  
"Sure is, are you going to write to mom and dad today?"  
"Yeah, you want to write too so we can put them all together?"  
"Sounds like a plan."  
"Alright around 4? My last class ends at 3.30 and then I will come back to the Common Room and we can get started. Tell Michelle about it too, if you see her."  
"Is she not coming to breakfast."  
"Don't know, I got a separate dorm now remember?"  
"OH right. Head Boy Privileges. Lucky you."  
"Oh well, I might stay for some times but others I do like to continue in our dorm room with the guys. Is a lot more fun, good thing it is kind of adjacent to it."  
"Are you trying to make me jealous?"  
"Is it working?"  
"No."  
"Then not."  
She laughed and the group did too. Ryan looked at them and then noticed James. "Oh you must be the Potter kid right? James was it?"  
"Yeah that's me."  
"Your mom doing alright? She still makes those chocolate cookies?"  
"Sure does."  
"Awesome, if you get some, do share. And do not tell Leah, she is addicted to chocolate and will eat every one of them."  
"HEY." The auburn haired girl exclaimed.  
"I'll keep that in mind thanks."  
"No problem."

He and his friends wedged themselves to them and took Leah's timetable.  
"Oh you are gonna start with Charms. Awesome class if you ask me. Defense against the Dark Arts, Herbology and Transfiguration. Sounds like a pretty good day. Only Potions with the Slytherins. Bummer."  
Lily looked up and asked "What's so bad about them?"  
"It's just that they are very competitive and a lot of them, maybe not the first years yet, but some of the older ones seem to be quite, let's say mean, and they do not like Gryffindor house."  
"I bet if we are nice to them they will be too."  
"You can hope and dream girl."  
"I believe everyone is good at heart."  
"Leah has the same ideals."  
Lily smiled at Leah.

"So how are the Professors Ryan?" Remus looked at him expectantly.  
"Oh they are alright, McGonagall is a little though at times but she loves all of us, Divination might be a pain in your butt on day but for right now, you should be good with all your teachers I am guessing. But you're gonna have to figure that out by yourselves."  
Suddenly someone spoke behind him.  
"Ryan, Drake. You ready?"  
James looked up and saw a really pretty girl with jet black hair and dark green eyes, she was Asian by the looks of it.  
"Oh yeah sure."  
Ryan and his friends stood up and said goodbye to the first years and they all hugged Leah and left.  
"Who was that girl?"  
Leah answered "Drakes girlfriend Kani, she is one of my brothers best friends. But she is in Ravenclaw."  
"Does your brother have a girlfriend?"  
"Had one, they broke up during the summer."  
"Oh"


	7. Chapter 7

The three girls and Lily got up and headed out of the Great Hall. Lily wanted to leave on time so they would not get lost, a small tip from Leah's brother.  
"Lily. Wait up."  
She turned. Severus was running after her. She stopped as did the others.  
"Good morning Severus."  
"Hi, how was your first day?"  
"Really great and yours?"  
"Was okay. Bummer we are not in the same house."  
"Yeah it would have been nice, but we can always hang out after lessons and so."  
"Lily, let's go." It was Emma. She was looking at Severus, a little appalled.  
"In a minute. Which class do you have now?"  
"Transfiguration. "  
"Oh we do too. We have the whole day together."  
"That's great. Let's walk together, us two."

Lily smiled and looked at the other 3. Leah and Emma were shooting daggers at Severus and Caitlin was behind them.  
"What?" Lily asked.  
"Are we not good enough for Snape here?" Leah asked.  
"What?"  
Emma continued "He could have at least said hello."  
The red head wanted to answer but Emma just said "Forget it, let's just go."  
They started walking and then heard laughter behind them, Lily turned, it were the four Gryffindor boys. They were laughing at something James had said.

"Do you think Transfiguration will be difficult?" Caitlin asked.  
"I doubt it. I heard Charms is a lot harder." Emma explained.  
"Do you have any siblings Emma?" Lily asked her.  
"Yeah an older brother. Scott. He's in Ravenclaw. 5th year."  
"So you grew up with the wizarding world?"  
"Yeah. My mom is a pureblooded witch, my dad is half, so we grew up knowing everything from Muggles and Wizards. Kinda awesome. You grew up in the Muggle world right Lily?"  
"Yes, I didn't even know I was a witch before I got my letter and even then I thought it was a joke."  
"I think that's so weird, you know like for us, this is natural of sorts. For you this is all new, but what is natural for you it's weird and new for us." Leah stated, lost in thoughts.  
"You don't have to be so rude about it." Severus said.  
She glared at him. "I was not being rude, I stated my opinion, I'm sorry it is not yours."  
"I understand what you mean Leah. But I guess we can learn from each other."  
"Totally."  
"And from me too!" Severus chimed in.  
Leah scoffed.  
"Do you think I am not good enough."  
"I don't really think about you."  
Severus turned red and Emma said "You are kind of rude. Not greeting people when you speak to one of them in a group."  
"If I only wanted to talk to one person then I do not see the need to start a conversation with everyone."  
"It's just the polite thing to do." Leah's voice grew louder.  
"Bug, everything alright?" Remus had appeared beside Leah with the other guys.  
Lily hoped Severus would shut up as to not ruin her chances of being friends with those girls but he didn't "So you think you are better than I am."  
"I'll say she is." Sirius Black said. "At least she washed her hair this morning."  
James, Peter, Emma and Cait laughed.  
Leah hadn't answered but was smirking lightly.  
"I think you are a horrible person."  
Leah looked shocked "And how would you know that?"  
"I remember seeing you at times at the Ministry, the way you are treated, like you are better than everybody. So full of yourself, only ever thinking about you. Selfish."  
"Don't you ever say something like that to her again." Remus stated.  
Severus looked at him amused. "What will you do? She probably doesn't even care about you."  
"Remus, let's just go. I don't need to listen to any of this." Leah answered. She took Remus arm and waved to the others, they all left and Lily was alone with Severus.

"You do not need people like that in your life Lily."  
"I actually really liked the girls. They were kind."  
"Not that Parker girl. She is pure trouble."  
She did not want to believe him, so she kept silent. He kept on talking about how they should hang out later on and how glad he was to have met her.

Lily entered the class room, looking for a place to sit and saw that James and Sirius were sitting in the third row, with Emma and Caitlin beside them, Remus and Peter were sitting in front of the girls and Leah beside Remus, they were talking eagerly.  
She did not know where to sit.  
Leah looked up and waved her new friend over, pointing to the seat beside her with her bag on it.  
Lily smiled and walked over there. She was glad she still wanted her to sit beside her.  
"Hi, thanks for saving me a seat."  
"Oh it's nothing. I wanted you to sit here. You are fun."  
Lily smiled.

She was looking around the classroom and saw a cat sitting at the front desk. She wondered what that was all about.  
People were murmuring around Lily, about how hard the class was going to be and how excited they were.  
Suddenly the cat jumped and Professor McGonagall stood in front of us.  
"Wow!"  
"How?"  
"You are an animagus!" James Potter said behind me.  
"That is so wicked!" Leah said beside me.  
McGonagall looked over to the Gryffindor group and smiled at Leah and James "Thank you for those compliments and 10 points to Gryffindor for recognizing an animagus."  
Lily smiled.  
"But in the future I would appreciate it if you raise your hand."  
Everyone nodded.  
The professor explained some of the basics of Transfiguration and the class wrote down some things and then class was over already.

The girls were talking eagerly about the class  
"That was sooo wicked."  
"I know."  
They had a 20 minute break and Emma was hungry so we took a detour to the Great Hall, food was always available when needed and there were some sandwiches and fruits laying around. The girls took an apple and a sandwich. They were so delicious it seemed unreal.

The Potions Master was a roundly and slightly older man- Professor Slughorn.  
Lily went to one of the front tables, sitting beside Caitlin, the 4 boys were sitting at a table beside them. 6 were able to sit at one table and the other two Gryffindors were already at Lily's table. Emma and Leah were starting to move to the 2 vacant seats at the table but Severus was faster and sat down beside Lily.

Lily looked at the two girls; they shrugged, smiled at her and went to sit with Remus and James. Severus beamed at his best friend. "Are you excited for this? I bet this is the best class."  
She just nodded.  
Professor Slughorn started talking. Explaining potions and what to use it for and then the class copied down some things, he asked some stuff and Severus and Lily were the only ones able to answer every question. It appeared that some others just didn't want to answer.  
Lily looked over at her other two friends, while Slughorn talked. Leah and Remus and Emma and Peter were laughing as Sirius and James were pulling faces. Leah looked over to her new friend and waved. Remus poked her in the side and she giggled.


	8. Chapter 8

After now two full weeks at Hogwarts Lily started to get the hang of it. The moving staircases and the right ways to the classrooms. Their timetable was changed one more time but it did not bother her. Today was a Saturday and Lily was anxious to walk around the ground a bit more. It seemed she was the only one.  
The redhead got out of bed and looked at her 3 friends. Friends. A word she hadn't associated with a lot of people in the last few years. She was happy to have come here and was even happier to have met these 3 girls.

Leah had her hangings closed, something she always did. It made reading at night easier without disturbing others with light.

Emma was wearing an eye mask and Caitlin was curled up in a little ball. Lily did not have the heart to wake them and decided to go up to the Owlry to write her parents.

While walking she noticed not a lot of people… most probably sleeping in. This seemed to be harder for Lily ever since she got here because she wanted to see everything.

As Lily walked in her owl, Aurora, flew down to her already.  
"Yes, yes give me a minute to write a letter and then you don't leave until they write back alright." The owl hooed.

 _Dear mom and dear dad!_

 _Hogwarts has been so amazing and I am sorry that this is only my second letter. It just seems that with studying and homework and classes I hardly have anytime to really sit and just write. Everything is so impressive I wish I could just invite you to come and see it all._

 _I have made fast friends with three other girls. One of them is the girl we saw at Diagon Alley. Leah is very nice, all of them are in fact. But Leah and Emma sure are different than girls over at your place. Loud and full of mischief. I have not been getting into trouble and I already have earned House Points for Gryffindor.  
The food here rivals yours mom. It is so good but I have no idea how it is made. Nor have I ever seen a kitchen. But it is only the beginning of the year so I will have some time to explore some more. _

_There is a rumor that in the lake of Hogwarts there is a Giant Squid but I have not yet seen it. I do hope I will though._

 _How are you? And how is Petunia? I feel like I am missing out on so much by being here._

 _Could you maybe do me a favor and send over some sweets from your place. The sweets differ as well but they are really good._

 _I miss all of you so much and by the next letter I will send some pictures._

 _I love and miss you a lot._

 _Lily_

As Aurora flew away Remus walked in carrying a letter.

"Good morning Lily."

"Good morning Remus!"

"Did you write your parents?"  
"Yes and you?"  
"Of course, they are really proud. My dad was in this House as well."  
"And your mom?"  
"Muggle."  
"Oh, as are my parents."  
"Yeah I know, my dad always says if she had been a witch she would have been in Ravenclaw."  
"You would have been good in Ravenclaw as well."  
"As would you."

Remus owl flew away and he turned to me.  
"I am assuming nobody is awake yet in your dorm?"  
"No only Elise but she is never there."  
"Yeah her brother is the same."

They walked in silence to the Great Hall and Lily was shocked to see Leah already there talking to her siblings.  
"Remus!" Michelle's light voice called out "You two come over here."

The two made their way to them and Remus and Lily sat on either side of Leah. Leah hugged him and he hugged her back.

"When did you wake up Leah?"  
"Half an hour ago probably. Someone woke me." She glared at her sister, who just laughed.  
"Oh Leah my sweet sweet sister, you need to explore Hogwarts."  
"And I could not do that after a good and long sleep?"  
"I decided that you cannot."  
Leah mumbled something under her breath and then turned to me "Why are you awake so early? You don't have any annoying siblings to wake you up at 7."  
"I've been awake since 6.30."  
"Merlin you are just as bad as them." She leaned her head against Remus shoulder and he patted her hair while putting some food on his and her plate.  
"Always the gentleman Remus." Ryan acknowledged looking at the two. He then turned to Lily "Ever since that guy was old enough to do anything he would do it. When getting something to drink he would get one for all of us, while dinner he would first serve anyone beside him before himself. And then there is his best friend Leah who would drag him into any kind of adventures."  
"And they are awesome adventures." Leah piped up.  
"I don't mind doing that and you know that Ryan. No harm can come from being nice to people."  
"Ah yes, Remus dear is worried about his karma that's why he does all that to even out all the bad karma he gets while hanging with us or rather with Leah."

Leah threw grapes at her siblings "Leave him alone."  
Remus gave her a smile.

"Where are Emma and Caitlin?"  
"I did not dare to wake Emma after last week and Cait looked so peaceful."  
"Well do you want to roam the grounds a bit?" Lily turned to the two older Gryffindors "You could maybe give us some Intel."  
Michelle sighed "I wish but alas I have a study date."  
At that Leah piked up "Ohh with whom?"  
"Is it still Brody?" Remus smirked.  
"Why do you guys always have to eavesdrop?"  
"Otherwise we would not know whom to torment."  
"Remus you are supposed to keep her sensible what with the whole karma thing."  
"Michelle nobody can keep her sensible."  
"Hey!" the small girl protested but Remus was quick to answer "it's part of your charm."  
She smiled. "What about you Ryan? Want to show us some of your secret hideout places?"  
"Yeah I'll show you guys around. I'd rather do that than study for N.E.W.T.s anyway."  
Leah clapped her hands.

The grounds of Hogwarts were immensely beautiful if you asked Lily.  
Everything was green and peaceful and not yet full of students.  
"Over there in that hut lives our gamekeeper Hagrid. He is the most incredible and crazy guy you could ever meet but he is a terrible cook."  
While walking to Hagrids they passed a big tree. Dumbledore had mentioned this tree but Lily was still curious.

"Why did Dumbledore plant this tree anyway?" she asked while pointing towards the willow.  
"The Whomping Willow? No idea. It was planted before this year, no explanation. It was just here suddenly."  
"Don't you want to know why?"  
"Not really, Dumbledore sometimes has these crazy ideas and it was most likely Hagrids idea anyway. He loves stuff like this. We can go ask him if you'd like."  
They did not notice the look on Remus face, the quick panic that crossed but he covered it up with a smile as Leah looped her arm in his and they walked towards a small hut.

"Ryan, good to see you again. Head Boy I heard. Congratulations! And this must be your sister. And two new Gryffindors, C'me in, I jus made som'e tea."

To say Lily was shocked to see a man this huge in front of her would be an understatement, she was speechless but Hagrid was so kind and told us about some of the creatures and things to see around the grounds that we were mesmerized by everything he said.  
Though Ryan was right. He was a terrible cook.


	9. Chapter 9

Living in a castle where magic is an actual thing and practicing this sort of magic was honestly on of the best things Lily has ever done. She missed her family dearly and was awaiting a letter back any day now. Schoolwork has been quite a change from what she was used to. No math or English or Physical Exercise. She would sometimes talk about it with the girls and while Leah and Emma listened closely and were in complete awe over how different a life it was, Caitlin would chime in with her own stories on how her life was different. Caitlin told stories of a muggle life growing up but knowing magic existed even though her parents both did not practice it at home. Her mother was the witch in the family, her family was murdered by dark wizards and after that she never used magic again unless absolutely necessary. Of course she was happy when Caitlin got her letter and told her about her own time at Hogwarts but she was still happy with her decision not to continue with magic. Her husband knows about the magical world and supports his wife and his daughter. She was an only child and grew up with a dog at home.

Lily always wanted a dog but her sister was allergic.  
"I am not very fond of dogs." Leah said.  
Emma nodded "Yeah, I mean we have 2 owls and a rabbit but dogs are just not really that magical."  
Lily smiled "Maybe that is the charm in it."  
"Maybe. Over the summer break I definitely want to visit you guys to see how you live. And you have to come and stay over at our house. My dad hosts this Ministry party every summer break and it is just so much fun."  
"How was life growing up just plain magical?"  
Emma started "Well I know some Muggle stuff, right. My grandfather on my mom's side is a Muggle, but he was really into magic, still is, he's just a bit old now. My dad is a Half-Blood too, even though it has been a long line of Half-Bloods. So I grew up knowing some Muggle stuff but mostly just through my gramps telling stories and walking through the cities of course. We do vacation like muggles I think."

Leah nodded "Well we are mainly a Pureblood family, like some of my relatives married Half-Bloods and thus their kids are Halfs but both of my parents' families go back ages. Pure Purebloods. My Dad's family was a mix of Slytherins, Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, so we are a complete mix. Some of my aunts are from France and they were in Beauxbaton."  
Caitlin interrupted "What is that?"  
Emma answered "The Wizarding school in France."  
Leah continued "Yeah, anyway, growing up I guessed us normal, I mean nothing is really normal and all when your dad is running for and then winning the position of Minister of Magic. He has been Minister for 6 years now. Before that he worked in Magical Law, but his name was known. His family has always held a certain power. Everyone knew the Parker family and with my mom's family is very popular. A lot of them are celebrities, some major singers, some models and authors and my mom is a singer. That they then connected was a major hit. You should see some of the magazines stories after my parents got together. They never had a moment alone. My dad said it was really stressful but they worked through it got married after a year."

Cait went and asked "How do you deal with that? And your siblings? The press and attention I mean."  
"Mom and Dad have tried to steer us as much clear of it as they can but with a big family like ours it isn't easy. Almost every week one of the family names will be in the paper. I guess I had a normal childhood. I had my friends, who were most of the times children of friends of my family. But I had Remus from the start and he helped a lot. What about you Lil? I don't want to sound rude or anything but I heard that sometimes witches or wizards who are from a Muggle family have it a little hard. Not everyone of course I just know some of the stories from my relatives."

At that point Snape sat down beside Lily underneath the oak tree they were all sitting under.  
"And once again Parker you said something rude to Lily. Why can't you just shut up."  
Leah rolled her eyes but ignored him, turning expectantly towards Lily.

"I guess I did not have a normal muggle childhood, I never really completely fit in. Especially after my sister thought of me as a freak. After things got a bit magical, stuff kept happening and I couldn't explain it, since I didn't know. But maybe that was just me being weird."  
Leah rushed "Lil you are no weirder than any of us."  
"She isn't weird at all!" Snape shot at her.  
Lily continued "So when the letter came, which explained some of it I really could not refuse. I mean the chance to understand everything and then Dumbledore of course said that I would fit in here more and have a normal, well normal magical life."  
Emma frowned "What do you mean Dumbledore said that?"  
"Well he came to my house and talked to me and my parents about all of that."  
"NO WAY!" A collective gasp was heard from the three girls.  
"I can't believe Dumbledore actually did that. That is so wicked." Leah rambled .  
"Doesn't he do that with everyone?" Lily asked curiously.  
"Nope, he doesn't even do it for every Muggleborn. Only some special kids." Emma said  
"That's why he was with you when I saw you in Diagon Alley. Oh wow."  
Lily was a little freaked, having just thought that this information would deem her as more of a freak but her friends were looking at her with astonished eyes and then Leah started telling stories of Dumbledore as she knew him.

"So my parents were here when Dumbledore was still Professor and he loved them. He loves everyone but whatever. Anyway after my dad got his reputation high enough and started having these formal parties where anyone from the Ministry was invited, he would invite Dumbledore too. And let me tell you guys he is so funny. He tells these incredible stories and wears the most ridiculous outfits and oh gosh I will have to invite you guys when there is another one. They are so much fun."

Snape said "My mother was never invited to one of your fathers' parties."  
Leah turned to him "I wouldn't know. I don't write the invitations, someone else does."  
"Of course, why would the Parker family have to work."  
"What is your problem with me?"  
"I don't like arrogant people who have everything handed to them on a silver plate."  
Emma rushed "You have no idea of her life and yet you constantly judge her."  
Leah smirked "Oh but Emma, he is right. We do have some silver plates at home for when guests arrive."  
Emma giggled.  
"Is my mother not good enough for the Minister?"  
"Honestly I don't know your mom."  
"You said her name! In the train."  
"Well growing up I had nothing better to do once I was in the Ministry and go introduce myself to everyone. I just pick up names really easily."  
"And your father…"  
"My father is a busy man, and most of the times he doesn't even know half of the people at these parties. And now I am done justifying myself to you." She turned.

Lily was scared. Severus kept trying to ruin her friendship with the girls and she really liked them.

A scream was heard from up at the castle. It was Remus, James, Sirius und Peter. Remus was calling out for Leah. "Leah did you forget what day it is?"  
Leah jumped up "Never!" The boys walked down to them. Caitlin looked up at Remus and asked "How are you feeling Remus? I hope Madam Pomfrey was able to help you."  
Remus stuttered "Yes thank you I am feeling a lot better already." He then turned to Leah "What do you want to do today? The guys and I wanted to check out some more of the castle."  
"Oh sounds like fun. I'll join. But you know what today is."  
"Chess day, how could I forget?" Leah grinned evily.

Remus had explained that. Leah and Remus had been best friends ever since they were 4. They had made a pact there. They were playing chess and Remus had always beat her and while they were playing, cute little Remus the gentleman asked her if she wanted to be his best friend. Leah obviously agreed but only if she were allowed to win on every 15th of every month. That day was a Wednesday so Leah continued by saying that on every Wednesday they would have to do something together. Once their Hogwarts letters came she altered the agreement stating that on every Wednesday they would have to sit beside each other if possible, because she was scared they wouldn't be in the same House. Well they were but they just continued with it. It was kind of sweet.

James turned to the rest of the girls "Anyone else want to join?"  
Emma and Cait nodded, who then turned to Lily. She turned to Snape with whom she hadn't been spending as much time with. "No it is fine. I will be spending some time with Severus."  
They nodded and smiled and then left.

Severus smiled at his best friend "What do you want to do?"  
"I don't know, maybe walk around the grounds and see new things."  
"Okay let's go."

Walking with Severus with him talking about his House and the Potions homework was different. "Have you started the homework already?"  
"Yes I have but we wanted to do them all together."  
Severus looked shocked "We did? Oh Lily, I forgot but I can give you mine to copy."  
"Oh no Severus I am sorry, I meant me and the girls."  
"Oh yes, sure."  
"I am sorry Severus, I just haven't seen you this week except for in class."  
"No it is alright, did you hear Quidditch tryouts are next Friday?"  
"No."  
"Are you planning on going?"  
"To try out?"  
"First years are not allowed to try out."  
"Oh. Then why would we go?"  
"People are allowed to watch."  
"I don't know, maybe."  
"Lily do you want to walk around inside maybe. It is getting a little cold."  
"Alright" She smiled and they walked around Hogwarts for a bit, talking and reconnecting.


	10. Chapter 10

"Lily!" a voice groaned beside the red-haired girl.  
"Yes Leah?"  
"I still don't get it."  
"What?" Lily looked up from her paper and looked at her friend.  
"What did Slughorn say again was the use of the bats liver in the Babbling Potion?"  
"It was to ensure that the effects of the potion were not permanent, so they would wear off after some time."  
Leah groaned. "I thought that red thing was for that. The uhh," she flipped a page "the core of nesselwood."  
"No that was for the taste."  
"Crap now I have to rewrite that whole thing." Leah flopper her head on the table.  
"Are you going to start then?"  
Leah looked up "No way, I am way too tired to rewrite this whole thing." She closed her book as Lily exclaimed "Leah!"

"Is my sister troubling you Lily?" a voice asked from the formerly vacant seat which now held Ryan in it.  
"She has to rewrite her essay but she won't do it."  
"I will just not right now, I wrote like two pages. And the only thing I had wrong was two sentences and for that I have to rewrite the whole thing?"  
Ryan smiled "Or you could use a spell to erase the wrong part and then use another one to adjust your essay."  
We looked shocked and Lily asked "There is a spell for that?"  
"Sure!"  
"Teach me!" Leah stated.  
Ryan pulled out his wand muttered a word, while Leah scrambled for a parchment and wrote it down quickly. The wrong writing vanished and Leah quickly wrote down the correct sentences. Then her brother mumbled another word while once again moving his wand over the newly written part and the paper adjusted itself.  
"Wow. Thank you so much Ryan. This will be really helpful for further essays."  
"No problem sis. That's what I am here for, to teach you everything I know."  
Lily was still curious "How come the professors don't teach that spell to everyone during the first few weeks?"  
"That spell was invented by Dumbledore, I don't know how many teachers or students know if it."  
Lily's eyes widened "You can invent spells?"  
Leah nodded "Of course and how do you know that?" she asked while turning to her brother.  
He smirked "Well sometimes during some of the school parties some of us prank professors and after one of those, my friends and I pranked McG and Dumbledore saw us but he laughed so hard and told us he hadn't laughed like that in a while and told us something to help us out."  
"Wicked. When was that?"  
"Uhm," he rubbed his head "I think third year. Yeah probably around Christmas."  
"Awesome!"

Lily could only nod while processing that one could invent spells and if she could one day do that?  
"Lily? You ok?" the blue-eyed witch beside her asked.  
"Yeah just wondering how you invent new spells."  
Ryan chuckled "Well apparently it is a complicated and long process and one needs complete focus and some other things. Heck I don't even know properly. Dumbledore sometimes holds a little seminar for some selective few to teach them a few things that they can't teach us."  
Lily looked at him, he had the same blue-green eyes as his sister and the same smile "Do you think you are one of those few? I mean if I can ask that." She blushed.  
"Don't worry Lily, I don't bite. You are a friend of Leah. To answer your question I don't know. I mean I hope so."  
"Oh as if Ryan. You are not Head Boy for no reason. Dumbledore obviously saw something in you which the rest of us are still trying to find."  
Ryan rubbed her head and kissed her on the cheek as he stood up and left.

"Ugh, my brother ladies and gentlemen."  
"Dumbledore chooses the Heads?" Lily asked while packing up her books.  
"Yes. And nobody knows how he chooses or which criterias to fulfill. My mom said he has like this list of students who have amazing grades and never caused any trouble but my brother is Head Boy and my dad was a Prefect. And let me tell you something. They are not angles."  
Both of the girls laughed as James walked into the Common Room followed by the other boys.

James was sitting at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall waiting for his friends to join him. It was breakfast time and he was so hungry he left early. Right now he was eating his second toast and a cupcake.  
A loud shriek was heard and owls were swooping in to their respective owners. A reddish owl landed in front of James. It was a letter from his parents.

 _Dear James,_

 _We hope you are behaving well and are paying attention in class. We miss you very much. Your sister was hoping you would be able to come back home for Halloween and her birthday but she understood that you would not be able to come.  
We got your letter and we want you to know that we know that you want to try out for Quidditch but first years are not allowed to try. You can try out next year. Of course it will be no surprise when you will be great at flying class, just don't get too cocky about it.  
Your friends sound really nice and of course we remember Minister Parkers daughter Leah, you guys used to play together as kids. Of course with their busy schedule and ours we never had the time to do as much together as we had wished but maybe now that can change. _

_We are anxiously awaiting your next owl and hope and wish that you will continue to be on your best behavior._

 _We love you,  
Mom and Dad. _

"Awww you wrote about us, how sweet." A voice said behind James. While reading the letter he hadn't even noticed that his friends and the girls came downstairs. Leah was standing right behind him reading his letter.

"Ever heard of privacy of letters?" he asked.

"Nah, I don't believe in privacy or secrecy. You should know that by now."

Remus was sitting in the library thinking of the next excuse he had to make up. The full moon was only one weeks away and it was the week before Halloween. He would need to say his mom got sick and he would have to visit to help. He just hoped Leah would not get suspicious. His schoolwork was not too hard and Dumbledore already talked him through the process of Madam Pomfrey walking him to the Whomping Willow where a tunnel leads to a Shack near Hogsmeade which was supposedly haunted. He knew of course that it wasn't but he hoped it would not set him off during the night.

"Hey can we sit?" a timid voice said. He looked up and saw Caitlin and Lily standing in front of the table.

"Yes of course, please sit."

They smiled and unpacked their things.

"What are you working on Remus?" Lily asked curiously.

"Charms homework. And you?"

"The same and we wanted to look into Herbology too."

"I think I will join you there."

They smiled at him and they started working in silence. With his condition making friends was never that easy. His parents were afraid that somebody would find out and would tell on him. He doesn't even think the Minister knows. Being here though it was so easy to find people who liked him because not a lot of people knew each other before Hogwarts. Lily and Caitlin were so kind and a lot less loud than Leah and Emma. Which did not mean anything according to Leah. She had made fast friends with Lily, Emma and Caitlin and the boys. But Leah never had that problem of making friends.

"Remus? Do you think we will get to the actual magic soon?" Caitlin asked while shaking him out of his thoughts.

"I hope so. I am anxious to start."

"Same here. Leah's sister always tells us these incredible stories but it seems like the theoretical stuff will never end."

"Yes, I have heard all the stories before; some of them are quite terrifying."

"What is terrifying?" Leah's voice called.

Lily groaned "Library Leah, quietness."

Leah just blew her a kiss. "What are you doing? It is a wonderful Thursday afternoon."

"Homework. Charms and Herbology."

"Ah, I already finished them. I couldn't sleep."

Remus looked up concerned "Are you alright?"

She just waved him off "Of course, I just had some trouble falling asleep and homework made me tired so it's a win-win situation."

He just smiled and continued writing.

"Do you want to copy mine?"

"No bug, I want to learn it."

"As if you need to."

"Why are you here?"

"Well I am bored."

Caitlin chuckled "Where is Emma?"

"Off with Peter and Sirius trying to find the Secret Passageway."

"A what?" Lily asked.

"Secret Passages. Apparently there are 4 in the school, according to my siblings and their friends. But they won't tell us where."

"And James?"

"I don't know to be honest. I'll go look for him. See you soon." She yelled as she was running out of the library while her three friends chuckled lightly and went back to work.

 **Please leave some reviews, it would mean a lot to me.**

 **Thanks so much**

 **Leah**


	11. Chapter 11

**So sorry I haven't been updating for a few weeks. Uni started again and it was harder than imagined. Loads to do. But I am back with a new chapter and I hope I can continue posting weekly.**

 **Please leave some reviews! Thanks :D**

Sirius and James were sitting in their dorm and were talking about the Halloween feast which would be in three days.

"Mate, I hope Remus will be back soon, he needs to chill a bit and stop studying the whole time. He will miss Halloween at that rate and it would not be cool if we were to spend our first Halloween here without him." Sirius said.

"Yeah hope so too."

A loud bang was heard and Peter stumbled into their dorm redfaced.

"What happened to you?"

"I accidently stepped on a cat and it jumped on me and I tripped and everything sort of fell."

James and Sirius had to laugh and could not contain it and after a while Peter shared into the laughter even though he still looked a bit embarrassed.

After a while James was looking through a Quidditch magazine and thought about the upcoming tryouts.  
"Man, I wish we could try out for the team already."

Sirius sighed "Doesn't every First Year dream of that?"

Peter chimed in "I'm not very good at flying."

"Believe me Pete, we saw." Sirius snickered while remembering their first few flying lessons. They only had 2 left and the last one was the week after Halloween.  
The first flying lesson had been a disaster if someone were to ask James. Nobody did of course, but it was his opinion. A lot of the people could not even get their brooms into their hands. Watching the Gryffindors he saw that he himself, Sirius, Leah and Emma did not have problems with brooms and seemed confident enough with them. Remus warmed up after a few tries and others like Peter and Lily were hopeless. The only thing funnier than watching them, was watching Snape struggling with the broom. The second lesson consisted of them flying some, only a few feet above the ground and it was so boring. The last lesson they were actually allowed to fly around the Court Yard and go a bit higher than the second floor, it was incredible and the four Gryffindors named earlier earned them a few point with their impeccable flying skills.

After Peter turned three shades redder he asked "Are you going to watch the Tryouts?"

"Course we are", James said "gotta see if we have a chance of winning this year."

The door opened and Remus came back into the dorm, looking tired, carrying his books and plopping onto his bed.

"Mate you got to stop. We have more than enough time to study for exams when they are actually starting. Not 7 months before." James sighed.

"I know… I just… "

"Just what?" Sirius asked.

"I don't want to disappoint anyone."

"You couldn't. Seriously, you are a great student, but you need to look out for yourself. You are going to wear yourself down."

Remus smiled and the guys talked a bit more before somebody knocked on their door. The four girls poked their heads in and asked them if they wanted to join them on the Quidditch field to watch. Obviously the guys agreed and the group made their way to the pitch.

Sirius was sitting beside Leah and Lily and was explaining the rules to the Muggleborn, while Leah and Remus were sharing a box of chocolate mice. Emma and Caitlin were discussing some of the abilities of the players on the field with James and Peter. Peter seemed more interested in aweing at his friends and what they were saying then actually watching the tryout and participating in the conversation.  
Leah's brother was the Keeper for the Gryffindor Team and last year he had been Captain but he gave that position to his best friend, who was the Seeker. He saw his sister and waved at her.  
The Tryouts began and more and more people, even from other houses came to watch. A lot of the students trying out were not bad, but they were not the best. Drake, the Captain of the Gryffindor Team, made quick progress and it seemed like most of the newer player would not be able to get a spot on the team. Right now there were Tryouts for Chasers and while that was going on Ryan flew over to the group of first years and smiled at them.

Leah questioned "Don't you have to make sure nobody scores a point?"

"Chris is having some others try out for the Keeper position as a back-up option. I am already on the team, no need to try again."

"You are so full of yourself."

"Love you too sis."

James asked "When did you get on the team?"

"It was in my fourth year. Before that there was Branson Wood, older brother of Drake and he was a Keeper. He graduated and I swept in and took the position for myself."

James grinned "I want to play on the team one day."

"Just tryout next year. Which position?"

"My dad says I am a really great Chaser so probably that position."

"Yeah we could use some really good ones again. This lot down there does not look too promising."

Leah interrupted "I thought that one girl was pretty good. With the blue hair."

"Kaida? Yeah she is good, 5th year. Might be a good distraction with her OWLs coming this year. But nevertheless we still need two more and two new Beaters."

Sirius chimed in "I always wanted to try the position of a Beater. But my mother said the only good position to be on the Quidditch field is the Seeker, because they get the winning points. SO I never tried to play a different position."

"You can always try next year. Practice a bit during the summer. You can all come over to our house. We can all play."

"Sometimes you make great suggestions Ryan."

"Why thanks Leah."

Lily was watching in awe "Quidditch seems a bit like basketball and football together."

Sirius, James, Leah and Emma turned to her "What is that?"  
"Sounds like a disease."  
"That sounds so weird."

Lily laughed "These are sports that they play in the Muggleworld. The goal of basketball is it to get the ball through a hoop and in football there is a goalie and he protects the goal of the advances of the opposite team."

Remus nodded "Don't you remember Leah, mom once took us to a basketball game."

She thought about it for a second then it dawned on her "Oh, you mean the one where they were wearing these loose shirts and had that brown- orange ball that they constantly threw on the floor and jumped?"

Remus had to laugh "Yeah, that one."

"Oh, yeah, that was pretty fun."

Lily turned back to watch the tryouts, it was the time of the Beaters.  
"What do they have to do again?"

James answered "The Beaters have to make sure that the Bludgers don't hit anybody on their team, while at the same time directing the Bludgers towards the other team."

"That seems easy enough."  
The bludgers were released and Lily gasped. She had not expected them to look so aggressive. "Does anybody ever get hurt in these games?"

Emma answered "Loads of times. Sometimes it depends on the length of the game and the competence of the players of course."

"The length?" Caitlin asked "How long do these games last?"

Sirius answered "As long as it takes for the Seeker to catch the Snitch."

Leah added "And they can be a bit dramatic sometimes. We thought we lost a few of them once, because we couldn't find them anymore, when we were playing a game during our vacations, and after a while, days sometimes, even weeks, we found them again, just whirring above our heads."

"Weeks?" Lily gasped. "But not here right? They have like a regulated game time here at Hogwarts?"

"Nah," James said "my dad once told me, during his time here, he was a Keeper, that he once had a game for a week. Of course not every day, but it took them 2 weekends to catch the Snitch."

Caitlin asked "But what about the Bludgers? Nobody gets hurt here with them? Do they? These are school regulated Quidditch balls right?"

Leah shook her head "My mom told me she broke her arm several times and my brother sometimes came home with bandages and bruises."

Remus chuckled "He is such a Drama Queen. He could have just gone to Madam Pomfrey but he said… what did he say again?"

"He said it made him look tough and like a badass. What an idiot."

The two laughed while Lily and Caitlin looked shocked. "Did anyone ever die?"

James thought about it for a moment but Sirius answered "Yeah, some. Sometimes somebody gets a Bludger right towards the head and that's that."

"Even here?"

"I don't think anybody ever died here."

Lily still look unconvinced and flinched everytime a Bludger got close to the Beaters. For an hour there were only the Beaters and it seemed like there were a few good ones in there, some of them got hit with a Bludger and had to be carried to the Hospital Wing. After almost 3 hours Chris, the Captain and Ryan discussed it a bit and then announced which players they wanted on the team. It was Ryan and Drake as the only two seventh years, Kaida and two fourth years as Chasers and a sixth and a fifth year as Beaters. Drake seemed content with his choices and sent them all of to shower.

Halloween came and most First Years had heard of the incredible feast they would be having and the pumpkins floating around. Many were excited, even upperclassmen, who had been here for years. But Halloween in Hogwarts is a magical event. This year however with a new set of Heads, they had planned something new. They wanted to do a Halloween party for the whole school, with costumes, candy and scary music. There was supposed to be a theme, but nobody had heard of one, so everyone just assumed there was none and that the party would not be held either.

James groaned "Man, I love Halloween and I really thought something special would happen today. I was so pumped."

Sirius grimaced "Yeah but at least there will still be the Feast."

Peter nodded eagerly.

The boys walked down to the Great Hall where they could already see the faint flickering of candles inside pumpkins and smell something sweet and sugary. Of course the tables weren't set get because Dumbledore wasn't there. There was a loud chatter going on and Professor McGonagall looked as though she wanted to start yelling at them all to be quiet or else detention for everyone.  
Finally Dumbledore arrived smiled at them all and waved his hands and the tables were filled with the most incredible foods ever.

Lily gasped "This is incredible! Do wizards always celebrate Halloween like this?"

Emma chuckled "You mean with a giant feast?"

"Yes."

"I don't think so. We go out and look for candy and minor spells which can scare you or make you laugh. There are always lots of sweets and costumes sometimes. I think they actually got the costume idea from the Muggles."

"I believe so,too. There are a lot of costumes which seem Muggle related. Or magical Muggle related. How Muggles view wizards and vampires, things like that. Also from comic books and books there are costumes." Remus said thoughtfully.

Leah added after she swallowed a big piece of potato "Also from these… ehm … these pictures which can move in the Muggleworld but are not pictures from here. Oh you know what I mean Remus. We always do that with your mom."

Remus laughed and Lily answered "Do you mean movies?"

"Yes exactly. They are so cool.

The feast continued and suddenly Ryan stood with the Head Girl. The two walked to the front of the Hall and smiled at everyone before Ryan started "Happy Halloween to everyone."

Many upperclassmen shouted it back and many laughed.

"I know there were rumors going around the castle of a party and costumes but Nikki and I decided that because we are all so busy with schoolwork and especially us upperclassmen, we decided it is time to grow up and start acting like responsible witches and wizards."  
There were gasps heard and many started mumbling. Some of the teachers looked please though.  
"I know this may seem a bit harsh but it would be better for all of us to go to bed early and get a good's night..."

A thunder sounded so loud and lightning flashed all around the Great Hall that many students gasped and screamed. The candles flickered and the tables started shacking. McGonagall, Madame Pomfrey, Slughorn and some of the other teachers looked alarmed and got up, ready to head to the students to get them to safety.  
More crashing and thunder and one loud scream later and the whole hall was completely dark. Nobody moved. Some teachers were trying to light their wands but nothing worked.  
Suddenly laughter was heard and a small light started shining in the middle of the hall to reveal Ryan and Nikki dressed and made up as zombies. Slowly the light started growing brighter but it was still eerie.  
"Now did you really think we would not celebrate Halloween?"  
The Head Girl continued "We took the liberty of preparing a little 'Party for the Undead' and also we dressed you all made you the perfect zombies for this party."  
After this everyone looked down at their robes only to find ripped and torn clothing and blood and dirt stains all over them. Their skins were pale and some green or blue and ripped in certain places. Over in all they all looked amazing.  
Dumbledore got up from his chair and said "I hope you all have a great All Hallows Eve!"  
Cheers rang from the whole hall.


	12. Chapter 12

November flew by in a whirr and snow had fallen fast and thick covering the grounds in a beautiful white. The castle was kept warm by the many fires everywhere and Professor Flitwick, who was a new teacher at Hogwarts, even showed the First Years a Charm to keep themselves warm for a short period of time.

The castle was bustling with excitement for Christmas and New Years and even the loads of homework assigned to the students did not faze them.  
Right now Lily was sitting at one of the tables in a Study Room with Severus opposite of her, both of them writing essays for Potions.

"Do you already have the passage with the Frog's liver?" Severus asked the redhead.

"I am working on it now. You?"

"I just finished it."

It was silent for a while before Severus continued "I really like Professor Slughorn, he is a great teacher."

Lily smiled "Yes he really is great. He seems to know so much about Potions."

Severus grinned at her and kept writing. After a few minutes Lily asked "Do you already know what you are going to do over the holidays?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you staying here? Or are you going home?"

"My mother wanted me to go home. Are you staying? Would you like me to stay too?"

"Oh no Severus, that is not what I meant. I am going home as well. I miss my family and I want to share with them some of the things I learned."

"Then maybe we can see each other over the holidays."

"I'd like that." They kept writing for some time and the only thing that could be heard was the scratching of quills on parchment and the rustle of chairs and books.

"Did your parents ever stay over here at Hogwarts during the holidays?"

"My mother did, she really liked it."

"I want to see it too, but I miss my family."

"I understand. They will be happy to see you."

"I hope so."

A shadow fell over Lily and she looked up to see Remus standing in front of her.

"Hello Remus, do you want to join us?"

"No thank you Lily. I was just heading to the Owlry with Leah, she hadn't seen you the whole day and is currently writing her parents and she wanted to still get your answer about the Party."

"Oh."

"How did you even know she was here Lupin?" Severus asked.

Remus looked at him still wearing his friendly expression "Lily told her friends that she would be here today. So Lily may I have an answer?"

"Of course. You can tell her I would be happy to be there."

"Excellent. I don't believe Leah would have let you say 'no' anyways. It is a party you have to attend, so amazing."

"I am looking forward to it." She smiled warmly and Remus smiled back and left to go to Leah.

Severus looked at her curiously "So you were invited to the Ministers Ball?"

"The Ministers Ball? No I was invited to the Parkers Christmas Bash."

"I thought you were spending Christmas with your family?"

"I am. The party is not on the 25th."

"And you are actually going?"

"Yes it sounds like fun. Leah and her siblings have been raving about it since November. Even though I am pretty sure I don't have anything appropriate to wear."

"Who else will be in attendance?"

"I guess the girls, Remus probably James as well."

"Oh."

"Is everything alright Severus?"

"Yes. I just thought maybe we could see each other after Christmas one day."

"Oh of course Severus."

Silence fell over the two and they continued writing. Severus Snape was thinking about the perfect present to get for his best friend and wished she would not go to that Party.

On the other side of the castle Leah had just sent of her owl to her parents.

"I am so happy to go back home. I miss them all so much."

"I know how you feel Leah; I really miss my mom's Parmesan Chicken."

"By Merlin yes. She needs to make that when we come home."

"I think she will. She knows us too well."  
"Agreed!"

James was running away from Peeves, who was throwing paper clips at everyone who crossed the fourth floor corridor leading towards the library. Sirius was in detention with Peter, because Peter broke something or another and Sirius was with him.

"Itty bitty First Year, where are you?" he heard the Poltergeist's voice so he kept running until he reached the Study Room. He knew he was safe here because Peeves was banned from it.  
He spotted Lily sitting at a table doing some homework.

"Hey Lily."

Lily looked up and said "Hello James, what are you doing here? If you wanted to do some homework I think you forgot something. Like a quill or parchment or even books."

"Oh no, I was running away from Peeves. He is throwing stuff at people."

"That means I should probably stay here for another hour or so."

"Probably be the safest thing."

"Thanks for the tip then. Where are your two friends?"

"Don't you mean three?"

"No, I already saw Remus just a few minutes ago. He was with Leah."

"Right, well they are in detention."

"Why does that not surprise me?" Lily laughed.

"Yeah. So I heard you are attending the Parker Christmas Bash."

"Yes I am. I am looking forward to it."

"Oh yeah it is great. The food is even better than here and you will get to see Dumbledore in some action. Even McGonagal will be there I think."

"Have you attended many of their bashes?"

"A few over the years, I was mostly too young and then my aunt would come and watch me and then when my sister was born we just stayed at home when my parents left. I went last year with my mom. My dad stayed at home because he had a lot of work to do."

"How old is your sister?"

"She is 6. And she can't wait to go to Hogwarts."

"She will have to wait a few more years."

"Yes she will. You might get to meet her at the Bash, if she is allowed to come. How are you even getting there?"

Lily thought for a few moments until she realized she had no idea where her friend lived and how to get there. "Honestly, I don't know."

"Do you have a fireplace?"

"Yes but why is that important now?" Lily asked, starting to get a bit annoyed.

"Well then Leah can talk to her father and get your fireplace added to the Floo network."

"The what?"

Lily was obviously very confused.

"Floo- network. It allows you to travel to other fireplaces in the network, for example to a friend's house or to Diagon Alley."

"You can do that?"

"Of course, we have to get around somehow."

"So you just pop up in any shop in Diagon Alley?"

"No that would be weird, there is a Floo station."

Lily nodded and realized how little she actually knew about the Wizarding World. She was still very insecure about how little she knew and that there were people who knew almost everything about this world and she only knew the beginning. Severus had of course told her a few things and helped wherever he could and so did the Gryffindors but it seemed that everyone knew more than they explained to Lily over any topic. James seemed to sense her unease and sat down in front of her:  
"Lily, don't fret. This is all new to you! It would be crazy to expect you to know everything. We are also still learning new things every day. Like Remus says; life is a process."

Lily had to giggle at the philosophy of Remus and relaxed a bit.

"I just don't want to annoy anybody with my asking."

"You are not. You would do the same for us if we did not understand something."

Lily had to grin at that "I don't think you know too much about the Muggle World."

James smirked "Me? Nothing. Remus probably quite a lot and with that Leah some stuff. Sirius most likely nothing and Peter maybe a little." Together they laughed. The clock struck 5PM and James got up.  
"I am going to head out, pick up Sirius from McGonagall. Are you going to come down to eat soon?"

"Most likely, I am quite hungry."

"Well you know where to find us. At the best table in the Great Hall."

Lily laughed and waved at James as he left. Severus came back to their table and dropped down two more books. Lily sighed "Severus I think I will stop for today. I got a lot finished already and I will just do the rest tomorrow. I will go to dinner now."

Severus looked a bit sad "Oh of course, wait let me just pack this up and then we can go."

Lily nodded and smiled, helping her friend to bring back some of their books and packing her bag.

"Maybe we can meet again tomorrow to study some more?" Severus questioned.

"Of course, I would like that."

And with that the two friends left to the Great Hall and there went their separate ways.

A few days later Lily walked up to their dorm and saw Emma and Leah looking at their closets and trying to figure out what to pack.

"Why do you guys look like this might be the decisive move for the treatment of cancer?"

Leah turned to her "What is cancer? I know it is like a little crab. Oh Merlin do you have endangered crabs?"

Lily shook her head "No it is a very bad disease. Most people die from it."

"Oh. So like Dragon Pox?"

"What are Dragon Pox?"

"A disease. My aunt died of it a few years ago" Emma said, while picking up another pair of shoes and put them in the trunk.

Deciding to change the topic Leah squealed "Are you guys as excited as me to go home for Christmas?"

Emma nodded. "I will be so excited to see my cousins again. Sorry again I can't make it to your Bash Leah. I would have loved to come."

Leah smiled "No worries. You will just have to come to one of our infamous Garden Parties during Summer vacation."

"Definitely." Emma grinned.

Lily looked at her best friend "Hey Leah, I forgot to ask but James said something about connecting my fireplace to the Floo- network. Because I do not really know how to get to your place."

"Merlin how ignorant of me. So sorry Lil" she smiled apologetically, "I will write a letter to my father immediately and tell him to do so. I did not even think of that. That is why you are the smartest one of us."

Lily blushed "Will you need my address or anything?"

"No, the Ministry has all the important information."

Caitlin walked in and sat on Lily's bed. "So my mother just wrote me and said she will not make it to the party but I am more than welcome to come."

"Splendid" Leah beamed.

"Did you just say 'splendid'?" Emma asked, while looking up from folding her skirts.

"Yes I did. Anyway, if you want to you can spend the night then at my place and the next day you can go back home. I never know how long these parties are. You can also stay Lil. Remus will most likely stay in his room, too and then James would probably stay. Ah we will never know."

Caitlin looked at her "Remus has a room at your house."

"Well it is a guest room but he would always stay there if I had another girl over. Other than that he would stay in my room. So what do you say? Sleepover?"

Caitlin looked thoughtful at Lily who answered "That would be a great idea. I bet my parents won't mind."

Caitlin nodded "I will ask them too."

Leah beamed. "Now let's go and finish our History of Magic homework so we can go and eat."


	13. Chapter 13

„It looks so beautiful from here, covered in snow like that" Lily said quietly as she was gazing up at the castle from where they were waiting for the carriages to bring them to the train station.

"It looks smaller." Caitlin added. "Almost like a little toy." Lily giggled. She smiled as Emma and Leah made their way towards them. She was shocked to see that the two had smaller trunks than she and Cait, but she knew that they had packed more.

"How did you manage that?" she asked them.

"Managed what?" Leah asked?

"Having such a small trunk!"

Emma answered "Oh, Extension charm. My mom put it on my trunk before I left for Hogwarts. It comes quite handy."

"So what does that mean?" Lily asked.

Leah's sister Michelle answered "It depends on how long and how intent you perform the charm and then your bags will expand how much you want. It works wonders and it is undetectable so nobody can trace it or find an extended bag."

Ryan added "There is this Auror and he apparently bought this wicked trunk in Egypt and it has 10 trunks inside one and he extended those and he then shrunk the trunk and carries it around with him everywhere he goes. Some even say he has a dragon in there."

"I never know if you are joking or if you are actually telling me something right and interesting." Leah contemplated.

"Would I ever lie to you?"

"Yes!" Michelle answered. Ryan feigned hurt and everybody laughed. Michelle continued "So I heard you two are coming to the Bash. It will be so great."

Lily said "I can't thank you enough for adding our house to the Floo network and for letting me come and stay."

"It's no problem and mom will love you. She loves all of our friends."

Leah nodded and climbed into a carriage.

The students were approaching Kings Cross and everybody was getting ready to get off the train. Lily was contemplating who would come to pick her up. She hadn't been in contact with her sister but she was still hoping. Petunia couldn't hold a grudge for that long, could she? As if sensing her thoughts Leah said "I hope you are not thinking about your sister right now. Even if she is still acting stupid, do not let it ruin your holidays. You deserve this, Merlin we all do. Everything will be fine and you can always owl us."

Lily nodded and picked up her scarf to wrap it around her neck. She was excited about the holidays, if only to tell her parents of all the fun stuff she learned and the people she had met.

The whistle blew and everyone started leaving the train. A younger wizard was standing in front of the portal waving the ones through the gate whose parents were not at platform 9 ¾. She saw Sirius say goodbye to James and leaving with a stoic looking family, who were shooting disapproving glares at Sirius and back to his friends. Peter left with a small, roundly woman who was gushing over him.  
Emma waved at a man with blonde hair and quickly turned to us "This is where I will say bye. I will write to all of you and I hope you have a great time at the Bash. I also wish all of you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." We hugged as a group and Emma left.

Leah waved at Remus and James "James why aren't your parents here?"

"They are probably outside, waiting."

The wizard waved them through and the five of them ran through the gate. A few parents were still standing around looking for their children and then Lily saw her parents, standing beside Leah's family and two couples; the first man had black hair and glasses and his wife had dark red hair and an arm around a little girl with black hair and blue eyes. The second couple was talking with Leah's mother and the woman had dark blonde hair and the man had light brown hair and was also wearing glasses.

"Jamie" a squeal came and the little girl started running towards James. Everyone turned to look at the group and smiled and waved. Leah and Remus immediately were engulfed in hugs by both Leah's and Remus family.

"Hey guys I will see you at the Bash, my mom is over there." Cait said and hugged the girls real quick and ran to her mom.

"Lily dear, look at you. You have grown, you are so beautiful." Her mother started gushing and hugged her.

"Well Richard we will see you tomorrow at the office. Leah it was a pleasure to see you again." Mr. Potter said and Leah answered "I hope you have a nice holiday and to see you at the Bash Mr. Potter." He smiled and James waved goodbye and a 'see you soon' to them all.

Remus parents were next and said "We will see you tonight at your place." Remus waved and they left the building.

Lily started "Thank you again Minister and Mrs. Parker for inviting me to the Bash."

"Oh no worries Lily, Leah has told us great things about you and we are so excited to get to know all of you." Mrs. Parker said. Her husband continued "If it is alright with you Mr. Evans, I will come by tomorrow and make sure the Floo connection works."

Lily had never seen her father so shocked "But aren't you the Minister? Surely there are others who should do that?"

The Minister chuckled "It is quite alright. Well we best leave before Ashley bounces off the walls at home waiting for stories. Goodbye and till tomorrow."

Leah turned to Lily "Bye Lils, I will see you very soon." She hugged her new friend and ran after her brother.

"Lily show us everything" her mother gushed as she walked through the door of her home. Lily smiled. It looked just the same.

"Rose darling, let her first get used to all of this again. She has been away for quite some time."

"Oh no it is alright. I would love to tell you all about it" she looked around "Where is Tunia?"

Her mother looked down "Oh honey she went with some friends from school. Today was her last day too, they went skating I think."

Lily nodded and swallowed the lump in her throat. She then opened up her trunk. Her mother started taking out all the dirty laundry to wash it and marveled at the Gryffindor tie.

"Now Lily I want to know all about your new friends. Are they nice? Do they help you?"

"Mom calm down, I will tell you: So there is Leah, you just met her and she is honestly so much fun. She is super smart and she always tells me things when I do not know them about the Wizarding World. She is also super pretty, but apparently her mom was a model and her sister is also really pretty. She is best friends with Remus Lupin, he was the sandy-haired guy. They are inseparable. He is one of the smartest people I have met there, we always study together. He loves to read and he has given me some of his books to read which are from the Wizarding world.  
Then there is Emma. She is really good at Herbology …. And as Lily continued telling her parents everything about her life James Potter was spending some quality time with his sister.

"Jamiiieeeee" Jenny's shrill voice called through the house "Can you show me something you have learned? Please, please, pleeaassee?"

Edward Potter chuckled "Jenny honey, you know James is not allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts until he is of age."

Jenny frowned "But Auntie Kristy said that the Ministry can't find out who did it when it is in a house of grown wizards. And you and mommy are old."

James laughed "I am sorry Jen, I would love to show you something but I am not allowed and I think mom and dad might hurt me if I do."

James mother nodded. "So tell us dear, that Sirius Black, how did he get sorted into Gryffindor?"

"Oh mom, he is awesome. He is so much fun and we always come up with the best pranks."

"Which I hope you never do to anyone." Annie's voice filled the kitchen. James shook his head hard, while his father only laughed.

"He doesn't like his family too much." James continued. Edward grew interested "Oh, do tell?"

"Well he said that they never accepted certain things, like his cousin is a Slytherin but she has like a lot of friends from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. And his uncle was banned from the family because he fought for the rights for Muggleborns. And they never took him to any Quidditch games, said it would be of no use, since a Black should work more on his purity and his level in society."

Edward Potter scoffed "Which level do they have? Back a few decades ago, yes maybe they did have a certain standing but times are changing. And whoever does not go with it, will be left behind."

"Edward that is enough! James was telling us about his friends. So Sirius is a nice kid? Is he coming to the Parker Bash?"

"Yes he is cool. I think so, Leah invited him and he said he will come. Then you can meet him and maybe he can come over once." Annie smiled and nodded, happy her son finally made some friends. "And that other boy, who was with Leah? What was his name again?"

"Remus Lupin."

"Right that boy, he was always attached to Leah. I don't think I have ever seen them separated."

"Yeah he is cool, too. He helps us study at times. And Peter is pretty cool too. He seems nice enough."

Jenny looked up from her plate and asked "Did you learn how to make potions? And how to charm an animal?"

James laughed "Not yet. It has been a lot of theory for some reason."

Annie laughed "Ah yes I remember the first year. Always so dull at the beginning but you will get into the swing of things pretty soon."

Lily saw her mother readjusting the pillows on their sofa for the fifth time and decided it was time to speak up "Mom? Is everything okay?"

Her mother looked up "We have never had a Minister in our house. What if we do not have a certain standard he wishes to see? Are we normal in our ways with having a witch as a daughter or do we need to know certain things?"

Lily stopped her mother "Mom everything is going to be okay. You met Leah's father yesterday. He was nice."

"Yes but he is a minister!" Her mother exclaimed as the doorbell rang. She paled and didn't move for a second and as Lily started towards the door she turned and pushed Lily back to open the door herself.

"Minister Parker. Hello. Please come in, make yourself comfortable. Would you like some tea or water or….?" She rambled on and the Minister stepped in and said "A water would be wonderful Mrs Evans." He came inside the house and looked around "A wonderful house you have here. Ah hello Lily, how nice to see you again."

"Hello Minister Parker, It is nice to see you again too,"

"I did not have the chance to ask you yesterday but did you enjoy Hogwarts so far?"

Lily beamed "Oh yes very much so."

He smiled "My daughter, Leah, that is, kept telling me stories of what you four girls did and what you told her about the Muggle world and that she was really happy that she has you as a friend. You know it was hard for her, all of my kids growing up so far into the public's eye – ah thank you Mrs Evans. I was already high up in the Ministry and wanted to start running for Minister and my wife is of course a famous model and fashion designer, so making friends was tough for the kids. But they pushed through and now thanks to you Lily, Leah has made a great friend. But now, let's get this on with, I assume you have better things to do than listen to me talk about my children."

He walked up to their fireplace and pulled out his wand. He mumbled something and the fire lit up, he then pulled out a small pot which had a grey powder in it. He said something under his breath and waved his wand and threw a handful of powder into the fire. It turned green, a bright emerald green. Lily gasped and so did her parents.  
Minister Parker let the pot float to the side of the fireplace where it fastened itself to a small ledge. He then did something which made Mrs Evans shriek out. He stuck his head into the fire and said "Parker Manson" he waited a while and then said "Honey, would you mind calling Leah down to try it out? Thank you honey, I will be home soon."

He then pulled back and got up. "Now we will wait a second." And within a second Leah popped up into their fireplace. "I would say it works just fine."

"Leah? How?"

"Hi Lily, it is so weird not seeing your face first thing in the morning. Hello Mr and Mrs Evans nice to see you again. "

Minister Parker pulled out some parchment and a quill. "Now, how Leah just did it was a direct link I set up but we will need to establish a name, so the Ministry and the people who want to reach you know which name to call when they step into their fireplace."

Lily looked dazzled and Leah spoke up "Daddy, we first need to tell them what this is: so your fireplace was now connected to the Floonetwork, you can now floo – which means travel – anywhere where you know the name to. For example if you want to come over to my place the name is "Parker Mansion" or James spot is "Potter Mansion" and Remus place is "Lupin House". These are the names they chose or were in their family already. So if you step into the fireplace, without having the fire lit obviously, well no, wait first the first thing. So if you want to travel say to my place you step into the unlit fireplace with some powder and you say clearly, and that is important very clearly, Parker Mansion and you drop the powder and you will get there in a second. Now if you only want to talk to somebody you need to have it lit and then throw in the powder, say the name and then stick your head in. Like my dad just did and I think that is all." She let out a long breath.

Lily asked "Severus told me that you always have soot and ash on your robes when you floo but you look perfectly clean."

"Oh yeah that is newer floo powder, it is a bit more pricy, cost 3 galleons more and you only get like a quarter of a pound more but it is so much better, smoother and cleaner. No worries I can always get you some."

Mr Evans coughed "Thank you but we are able to pay for our own … powder… "

Minister Parker laughed "Oh no sir, we did not wish to imply anything, it is just we get so much of this that we hand them out to friends, we like to pay for our own as well. It does not shine a good light on the Minister of Magic if he gets most of his stuff for free. Please just accept the powder, it would mean a lot to us."

Leah piped up "Oh and also with this powder, you can also send messages in the fire. It is faster than an owl but it makes the floo powder empty faster of course. But if it is an emergency you can totally use this. And here I have a list of some of the fireplaces which might be of interest to you."

Lily looked at the list and on it were Leah's name as well as, Emma's, Remus's, James's, the main one for Diagon Alley and one for the Ministry.

"Thanks a lot."

Lily was walking towards the small lake they had close to their home, clutching Severus's letter and hoping she was not late.

 _Dear Lily_

 _I hope you have had a nice start to your holidays. I was wondering if you would like to meet up. I will be at the lake where we first met on Saturday at 3 pm. I hope to see you there._

 _Severus_

Lily kept looking at her watch, it was 2.58 and she still had to walk quite a bit. The letter came by surprise and it arrived while she was out with her mother trying to find the perfect dress for the Bash at the Minister's house.

She arrived and saw him sitting in front of the shore "Oh Severus, thank Merlin I thought I was too late. Your letter surprised me."

"No worries Lily, I was just sitting around. How is your family?"

"They are great Severus, thank you. I was just out with my mom, trying to find a dress and some nice shoes, that's why I am a bit late."

Severus frowned "Why do you need a dress?"

Lily smiled and answered "The Parker Bash. It is in a few days so I wanted to look presentable."

"When exactly is the Bash? I was never invited so I do not know."

"It is on the 26th, so in two days. Anyway how is everything at your house? Are your parents okay?"

Severus shrugged "They fight a lot and father does not want to accompany mother to the Ministers Ball on the 29th. She said she does not even know if she should go, because her ranking isn't that high in the Ministry."

"Oh Severus, I don't believe Minister Parker cares about that."

"You don't know him."

"He seemed nice enough. He came over this morning to connect our house to the Floo network."

Severus looked shocked. "He personally came over? We only had some Ministry official do it."

"It might have something to do with the fact, that Leah and I are friends."

Severus nodded slowly. "Did you find a dress?"

"Yes I did! It is just beautiful."

"I wish I could see it."

"I bet my mom will take a picture and then I can show you."

Severus smiled at her and lightly brushed her hand. Sometimes she wondered if maybe he liked her a bit more than just a friend but she pushed the thought aside to have a nice day with her friend.

Christmas came faster than Lily expected. This morning she had sent out her present for Emma, because the rest of the girls had decided that they would swap presents on the 26th at the Bash. Now she was in the kitchen with her mother and sister and preparing their famous apple pie. Petunia looked at Lily "You are going to wear something normal tonight when everyone shows up right?"

Lily looked up "What do you mean?"

"I saw the things you wear around your freak school. I don't think grams and pop would understand so maybe wear something normal."

"Tunia, those are only my school robes, we wear normal clothes outside of school too."

"Well just wear a dress then." And with that Petunia left the kitchen.

Rose Evans sighed "I know it's hard but give her some time, she missed you a lot."

"She never wrote me."

Rose Evans stroked her daughter's hair, not knowing what to say.

Lily was standing in front of her mirror, looking at the red dress she was wearing. Both her grandparents were coming over and so was her aunt and uncle. She was really nervous, what if she was going to do something and accidently do magic. She could get thrown out of Hogwarts and then she would have to go back to her boring life, with no friends and nothing to do.

"Lily dear, your grandparents are here." Her father yelled up the stairs. She sighed one more time and left her room to greet her grandparents. Her mother's parents have always arrived earlier than everyone else, and they only lived 10 minutes away. Her grandmother Margaret was a kind and small woman, who always made the best cookies and always brought some with her. Her grandfather John was also a smaller and slightly plump man, who loved gardening just a much as his daughter and who always took Lily walking in the park and bought her ice cream.

"Lily darling, look at you! You have grown so much since we last saw you" her grams said while hugging her.

"I missed you so much grams and pops."

A second later the doorbell rang again and her other grandparents, Elisabeth and George, and their daughter and her husband, Maisie and Albert, arrived.  
They all said their hellos and then everyone left for church and after church they came back to eat their turkey and vegetables.

"Petunia, how has school been? Your father told us you are doing very well."

Petunia looked at grandpa George "Yes grandfather I am doing well. My favorite subject this term is math and economics."

"All very good skills. They were my favorite too."

Petunia smiled and went back to eating.

"Lily," her grandpa started "where is it you are going to school again?" Lily looked at her parents. Yesterday they had said, that they told everyone that she was going to a school in Scotland because they had a great science division and it was a boarding school.

"In the highlands of Scotland."

"It must be very beautiful there" grams Margaret swooned. Lily thought back to Hogwarts with the beautiful lake and the Towers overlooking the Forbidden Forest. "Yes grams it really is."

"Did you learn interesting things there Lily?" her grandfather questioned again.

"Yes I did, I am having a lot of fun there."

"Well school is not just about fun, Lily, are you writing good grades?"

"Yes I am, my professors say I am very talented and smart."

"Petunia, why didn't you want to go with Lily to this new school?"

Petunia was about to open her mouth as her mother stepped in "Petunia is not that interested in science Elisabeth."

Petunia nodded and said "I also did not want to leave my friends."

"I am guessing Lily did not want to leave her friends either."

Petunia snorted "She did not have any friends here."

"Enough Petunia" her father scolded.

Grams Margaret said "Well I bet she found some great friends now. Right dear?"

Thinking about Leah, Emma and Caitlin she nodded.

"Well John, maybe we should take a trip to Scotland one day and visit Lily."

Lily chocked on her water and her father started explaining "Oh no, it is so far away and there are no hotels anywhere near and the school is a little strange about family members visiting."

"Oh, well maybe someday."

Suddenly the doorbell rang. "Who could that be?" Rose asked?

Petunia stood up and opened the door.

"Hello we are here to see Lily."

Petunia came back inside followed by Leah, Remus and Ryan.

"Leah? Remus? What are you doing here?"

"Hello everybody, we wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Hello Lily, Ryan was just taking us on a spin, he bought himself a … oh what do you call it… a … ah… a car." Her grandparents looked at each other worriedly as Leah seemed to not be able to remember a basic English word.

Ryan smiled "Good evening, Leah convinced me to driver her here to say hello, but I see we are intruding so I will take these two and leave you be."

Thomas Evans stood up "Nonsense, you are welcome to stay, we were just finishing actually. Maybe you would like to stay for desert?"

Ryan smiled "I wish I could, but I have to be somewhere."

"Maybe your friends would like to stay for a bit Lily?"

Remus answered, "Only if it is not inconveniencing you, sir."

"Oh not at all, please stay."

Leah looked at Ryan "You can pick us back up?"

"Alright in one or two hours alright?"

They nodded, and Ryan smiled one more time and left.

Lily suddenly remembered how to speak, "These are two of my friends from school Leah and Remus. These are my parents, my sister and my grandparents and uncle and aunt."

"Nice to meet you. Lily I am so sorry for just coming by unannounced, but I had no way of reaching you. I was already sending of presents and Ryan just got himself this car and I feel like I am blabbering."

Lily hugged her best friend, "I am happy you came by, you too Remus. Did you guys spend Christmas Eve together?"

"Yes, we always do. What did you do so far?" Everyone moved to the living room and the three kids sat down on the rug.

"We went to church and came back here and ate."

"Oh sounds like fun. I still need to tell you something. You and your parents are coming to the Bash and there is actually a different… ehm" she looked around and lowered her voice " fireplace, you need to go to. It is Parker Manor entrance. It will enter you to the side corridor beside our main entrance hall. It is just easier that way."

"Okay I will remember that. Is there anything else, except my sleepstuff I need to bring?"

Remus chuckled "You probably will not even need that, their house is packed with stuff."

"Shush Remus." She pulled a face at him.

"Lily, is this girl, Leah I hope is correct, in some of your courses?" grams asked.

"Yes ma'am, we even share a dorm room. We became fast friends."

"How nice, and this young man, is this your boyfriend Lily?"

"Oh no grams, just a friend."

"Oh is he your boyfriend Leah?"

Remus smiled politely "No ma'am just life long friends."

"Mother, they are not yet interested in boyfriends. They are only 11."

"Well I was curious Rose."

The doorbell rang again and Ryan was standing outside. "Well thank you very much. Mrs. And Mr. Evans we will see you in two days. Lil don't forget Parker Manor Entrance. Really simple. Have a nice evening and a merry Christmas tomorrow."

Petunia looked shocked "A manor? They live in a manor?"

Lily gulped "Yes, eh, their mom is a famous fashion designer and her dad works in politics I believe."

"Did they invite you to a party Rose?" her grams asked her mother.

"Yes. And I believe it is time for the children to head to bed, so Father Christmas can fill the stockings. Good night children. I will see you tomorrow."


	14. Chapter 14

James woke up to a knocking on the door. "James dear, you have a visitor?"

"A what?"

"A visitor, please come downstairs."

James got up and put on his morning robe, walked downstairs, while rubbing his eyes. He wondered who it was and why it would be so early in the morning?

"Mate you look like you just woke up." A voice said, a lower voice, a voice he knew very well because it was the voice of one of his best friends: Sirius.

"Sirius, man, what are you doing here? And at this hour?"

He laughed "Mate it's noon. And I just couldn't stay at home. My mom tried to stop me from going to the Bash. They were never invited to the Bash, just to the Ministers Ball and they don't want me going. It's been a bit difficult. If it's okay, could I stay here for a few days."

"Yeah totally, wait let's go to the dining room." They walked and entered the room, where James parents were sitting.

"Hello, you must be Sirius."

"Yes Mr. Potter. I am sorry for just coming by like this the day after Christmas."

"James friends are always welcome here. Please sit, would you like something to drink? We just made some tea."

"Yes thank you, sir."

His mother looked at him and then turned to Sirius "Why don't you tell Leroy to make up a room for Sirius. And take his bag. I hope you brought something for the Bash tonight Sirius, I don't think we have enough time to have something tailored."

"Oh yes, ma'am I have something with me."

"Who are you?" a voice asked behind James who jumped up.

"Jenny don't scare us like that. This is Sirius, he will be staying with us for a few days." Annie Potter said and smiled.

"Let's go Sirius, I will show you around." James said while walking out of the room.

He showed his best friend the kitchen, the library, the other living room, his room, Sirius's room, the garden, the underground pool, the small quidditch pitch and the bathrooms.

"So mate, that bad at home?"

"You would not even understand man, my mom is crazy. Ever since she found out I was sorted into Gryffindor she treats me even worse. She said I brought shame onto the Black name."

"Do you regret it?"

"What?" Sirius looked confused.

"Getting sorted into Gryffindor?"

"Nah man, never. I love our house. And everything that gets be further away from my family is a blessing. So how was your Christmas?"

"It was fine, we went to my grandparent's place. They live in this huge house by the beach and they don't like to travel too much anymore. My sister is really happy. She got a cat and some toys. What about you?"

"New robes, books about the history of the Blacks' and money in the vault. My brother gave me an autographed poster of my favorite Quidditch team."

"That's nice. So what do you want to do? We still have some time before we need to get ready for the Bash."

"We need enough time to look presentable though, or else Leah will kill us."

They laughed and decided to play some Quidditch in the small Quidditch Pitch Edward Potter had built for his son when he was 3.

"Lily, what if we are the only ones wearing normal clothes?"

Lily rolled her eyes, not bothering to leave her room because she knew her mother would storm in any second. And she was right.

"Are you sure you want to be wearing that dress and not something more suitable for witches?"

"Mom, you do not need to worry. Leah said there will be plenty of people wearing 'normal clothes' as you call them. Most of our clothes look the same. Some just might be wearing robes or weird hats. But just look at the royal family, they wear crazy hats. Now can you please help me with my hair?" Lily whined and finally turned to her mother, who looked at her in shock.  
"Is everything okay?"

Rose Evans snapped out of it and responded "Yes, of course. I just realized how much you changed. You are growing up."

"What do you mean?"

Her mother smiled "I didn't think you noticed. You just said 'our clothes' like it is already normal for you."

"Oh." She did not know what to say, she was baffled. She hadn't even realized that she had started to see the wizarding world as her world and slowly leaving the Muggle- world behind. Her mother smiled at her and sat Lily down at her vanity and slowly started rolling her hair.

"You two look wonderful." Thomas said as his wife and daughter walked down the stairs and hour later.

"Thank you dad." Lily twirled once in her dress and smiled at her mother.

"Petunia sweetheart, are you sure you do not want to come with us? You are invited."

"No. I already invited some friends and I would rather stay here than be there."

Lily looked down sadly and turned away to get her coat and then thought better of it and left it hanging. Her father took her bag, turned to her, asked "What now again?"

"I will step into the fireplace first and then I will take some of the floo- powder and say 'Parker Mansion entrance' then you and mom will do the same."

They nodded but still looked a bit scared. Lily felt the same but she put on her brave face, she was a Gryffindor after all. "Okay, see you on the other side." She took the floo- powder, swallowed once, said the name, dropped the powder and a wooshing took over her body and the next thing she knew she was standing in a new fireplace inside a richly decorated room filled with benches, closets and 6 fireplaces. In one of them she saw her mother appear and Lily slowly stepped out of the fireplace towards her mother. "This place is so pretty."  
Her father stumbled out of the same fireplace Lily had gotten out of. "Whoa, that was interesting."

"Lily. There you finally are." Lily turned at the voice and saw Remus walking towards her.

"Remus, hello. Are we late?"

He shook his head "No of course not, Leah has just been waiting and checking every few minutes when you will be arriving. Hello Mr. and Mrs. Evans. Pleasure to see you again. May I escort you to the ballroom? Just hang your coats, if you had brought any, into the closet and write your name on the piece of parchment inside the closet." He paused for a moment "Lily you are staying the night, right? Twinkle would you please come here." He had called the last bit out louder.  
Lily was a bit confused when nobody arrived and then gave a quiet yelp when something pulled on her dress and said "May I take your bag miss?"

Lily looked shocked "Uh… yes… of course. Thank you."

The small creature turned to Remus "Will the Miss be staying with Mistress Leah?"

"Yes thank you Twinkle. Well shall we go?"

Lily nodded and started to follow Remus. Her mother spoke up "Not to sound rude but what was that?"

Remus turned to her and apologized "Forgive me, I forgot that you most likely have never seen a house- elf before. They are creatures who work for families and serve them in anything they need. Twinkle is with her brother Twiggs, their family has been serving the Parker family for over a century."

Her father swallowed "Oh so like a servant? Do they live here?"

"Yes, this is as much their home as it is for Leah and her family."

Lily wondered "Do they get paid?"

Remus scrunched up his nose "Not many of them, a lot of them find it insulting and for them it is an honor to work for families. Although the Parkers' do treat their elfs a lot better than other families."

The red- head exclaimed "Then they are slaves? Do a lot of families have them?"

"No Lily it is not quite like that. House- elfs are different from humans. They are so to speak born to work. A lot of families have them yes. Even Hogwarts has them."

"Hogwarts?"

"Yes, of course. Who do you think cooks and does all the cleaning? But like I said, there are lot worse families to work for than the Parkers or at Hogwarts. Here we are. The party has just started, Leah is still with her family, let me introduce you." They slowly walked over to Leah and her family which were still talking to a small man with a big lilac hat and a walking stick made out of bones it looked like. Leah saw them approach and waved excitedly.  
"Here we are." Remus smiled and moved beside Leah.

The Minister of Magic smiled "Hello family Evans. May I introduce my family and I. My name is Richard, and please do call me so, I believe we will be seeing a lot of each other still. My wife Arielle, my oldest son Ryan and my daughters Michelle, Leah of course and Ashley. I hope you had an easy travel here."

Lily's father got himself together first and answered "Yes thank you very much Minister. My name is Thomas, and this is my wife Rose and of course our daughter Lily. It is quite an honor having been invited here. Thank you again."

"Oh any friend of my children is always welcome."

Leah smiled and stepped forward "So nice to see you again Mr. and Mrs. Evans, I hope you had a good Christmas Day. Lily you look really nice."

Lily smiled but she felt a little out of place in her cream- colored simple dress next to Leah in her dark green long dress with pearls adorning her hair. "Thank you, your dress is really pretty too."

"Hey dad, is it okay if Lily, Remus and I go join James and Sirius?"

"Yes, all of you. If you have some place better to be than welcoming people please do." As his wife made a move to get away he snatched her back and she laughed while he joked "Not you my dear. I need you as emotional support. Mr. Evans, may I call you Thomas? Let me introduce you to Mr. Bibledon here, he is one of the finest wine crafters in the Wizarding World."

Leah smiled and took Lily by the hand and lead her through the maze of people with Remus following close behind them. Leah smiled at a lot of people and waved to a few, finally Lily saw where they were headed: a small family with James in the middle and Sirius right beside him.

"Hey guys, look who I found. Mr. and Mrs. Potter, may I introduce Lily Evans. She also goes to Hogwarts with us."

"Very nice to meet you Lily. That means you already know these two, I presume?" The woman with dark red hair and a gentle smile said, while gesturing to Sirius and James.

"Yes ma'am. It is so nice to meet you." The family smiled back and Leah indicated for the two boys to follow her. They moved a bit out of the way towards a sofa which was shaped like a 'U' and had enough room for all of them. Leah sighed "Ah finally, I could not wait to sit down again. I have been welcoming guests since an hour already. The Potters always have to arrive half an hour before it actually starts and so does this woman who works for the Apparition Department, I think she fancies my dad a bit."

Sirius started "How can you tell?"

"Every Wednesday after a meeting with the Heads of Departments he comes home with a cake and at every party she always sticks around my dad the whole party long."

Lily asked "And your dad? What does your mom say?"

Sirius laughed "Have you seen her mom? I don't think she has to worry about her husband leaving her for another woman."

"Thank you very much Sirius" Leah grinned "If we are really lucky my mom will sing some of her Christmas songs."

Lily asked again "Why if we are lucky?"

James answered "Her mom hasn't been singing too much anymore." Lily still looked confused so Leah clarified "My mom used to be a singer and model and she was very successful. She once had an accident on a tour, I don't want to go into any details, it took quite a toll on her and ever since then she stopped doing big stuff. That was 6 years ago and she spent almost half a year at St. Mungos and then she just stopped. She used to spend all her time with Ashley and me, now only Ashley, and shopping and redecorating the house. I don't know what she will do when Ashley leaves for Hogwarts."

"That is quite horrible. When does your sister leave for Hogwarts?"

"In three years." It was quiet for some time and then Lily sighed "What is St. Mungos?"

James answered "The hospital for the Wizarding world."

An hour later Lily was sitting beside her mom and next to an empty chair because Caitlin had still not arrived. They were almost ready for a Christmas dinner. The House-elf Twinkle appeared in the doorway and a girl with brown hair and a nice blouse and green pants came behind him, saw Lily and went to sit next to her.

"I am so glad you are finally here."

"Me too, I almost didn't make it. My mom was not feeling well and she wanted to come, she kept saying she will feel better soon, come with me but it did not get better so I left without her. Where is Leah and her family?"

"They are sitting all the way at the front, right there" Lily pointed to the end of the table, where the Minister family was sitting. The Potters were sitting right next to them, the Lupins on the other side. It had wondered Lily why the Lupins were sitting so close to the top. She had found out that the Potters were Head- Aurors and she also got to learn what an Auror was, so she understand why they were sitting quite close to the top but Leah has also explained why Remus and his family were sitting so close. Leah's mom hated talking to all these people, so she would rather be sitting close to her best friend and because nobody questioned the Minister nobody ever said anything. Leah looked down, saw Caitlin, whispered something to her brother, got up, walked over to the two girls, hugged Cait "I am so glad you still made it. You will so love this food, at the end there is this awesome apple cake and pudding and wow I am so hungry." She smiled and left again.

"Wow this house is incredible. Are you spending the night? Did you see that House- elf, so cute with her little dress."

"Yes I am spending the night. I did not know about House- elfs before. Did you know there are some in Hogwarts?"

Caitlin grinned at her "Yes I knew what they were. I assumed there were some but I have never seen them in the castle."

The platters before them filled up with the most amazing foods and her mother sighed as she smelt the sent of pumpkin soup. "I want a House- elf as well Lily. This looks amazing."

"You sure it's cool we stay the night?" Sirius questioned Leah.

"Yeah of course, you guys can stay in Remus's room. Twiggs is just bringing in one more spare bed."

Caitlin looked stunned "How do you fit two more beds into one room? Did you just say Remus room?"

Remus grinned sheepishly "Yeah I often spend the night here and I have always had a room here. We could already go upstairs maybe. I really want to get out of these robes." Leah laughed and agreed.  
"Hey dad, we will be heading upstairs already. We are a bit tired and just want to hang out. Goodbye Hope and Lyall, I will see you guys tomorrow. Goodbye Mr. and Mrs. Evans, I hope you had a great time. Good night family."

"Goodbye Leah, and we sure did have a fun time. Thank you very much." Mrs. Evans turned to her daughter "We will see you tomorrow. I hope you have fun and don't stay up too late and don't bother the Minister and his wife and… "  
"Rose! They will be fine. Have fun my little petal, we love you." Thomas Evans was so happy that his daughter was happy and that she was having fun with her friends. Richard Parker laughed and agreed that the kids could not annoy them even if they tried.

"So this is Remus room and where you, James and Sirius, will be spending the night. I would say we get undressed and we will meet up again in my room in 10 minutes?"

"Sounds like a plan bug."

"This room is amazing! It is so huge and you have your own bathroom?" Caitlin exclaimed. She was starting to peel of her pants when Leah moved into the bathroom to take off the pearls in her hair.

"Yeah it's pretty cool. Does anyone want to take a shower?"

The two other girls declined the offer and started taking off their formal dresses to slip into something more comfortable. Lily was done first and sat on the first extra bed that was brought into the room. She looked around. Leah had a lot of books and a sowing machine, an open door which lead to a smaller room full of clothes and so much stuff Lily did not know where to look. A knock sounded on the door.  
"Could you open the door Lil? We are almost done, Cait is trying to get the last of the pearls out."  
Lily stood, opened the door and let the guys enter; all of them were wearing sweats and shirts, Remus moved towards Leah's bed and Sirius and James sat on the floor below it.

James took a deep breath "Been quite a while since I have last been in here."

Leah's voice sounded from the bathroom "Yeah I bet it has been already 3 years or so." She and Caitlin finally emerged from the bathroom dressed in their sleepwear and looking clean and fresh. "I can't tell you how much my hair was hurting." She laid down next to Remus, looked to us, asked "Did you have fun today? I am so happy you came, it was way less boring."

Lily nodded, so did Cait and James.

Sirius asked "Does your family do this every year?"

"Every few months if they can. We always have some of these at birthdays, or holidays or when my mom feels like it."

Remus piped up "Kind of sad she did not sing this year."  
Leah nodded "But I felt like she wouldn't, she didn't even mention it that she wanted to."

Lily wanted to change the topic "So does your house- elf cook everyday?"

"Oh no, only some special days. My mom loves to cook. She might even cook breakfast for us tomorrow morning."

"And in Hogwarts?"

James laughed "I think if there is no-one in detention to clean things, the elfs to everything."

"But where do they live?"

Remus shrugged "No idea. Probably close to the kitchens."

Caitlin asked "There is a kitchen?"

Leah smiled "Where did you think all the food comes from?"

"Magic?"

Lily answered "You can't produce food. I read that in a book."

Cait nodded "So where would the kitchens be?"

Nobody answered but Remus, Sirius and James looked at each other and grinned.


	15. Chapter 15

The 4 boys were sitting at the Gryffindor Table the first morning after their arrival back to Hogwarts. They were a bit quieter, because they had stayed up half the night talking. Sirius had stayed with James for almost another week before he went back home to check on his little brother. Remus had told them, he stayed at home a lot and actually spent New Year's Eve with his family because Leah and her family had to leave to visit their aunt who had just gotten a new baby. The Minister had to miss the Minister's Ball, but it still took place. Peter told them that he had spent his holidays with his parents in France to visit his family and that he had hoped to be able to attend the Christmas Bash but his parents would not have allowed it. James had spent the rest of his holiday spending time with his sister and telling her all about Hogwarts.

"During the summer we have to spend more time together boys. It will be weird not seeing your faces in the morning for a few months." James said while biting into his toast.

Remus nodded "Can be arranged, my family and Leah's is just spending 3 weeks in a resort in the Maldives. Other than that I don't really have much to do."

Sirius looked down to where the girls were sitting, they were laughing and exchanging stories. This was their first day back and Sirius was already bored again. "How about a little prank?"

Peter chuckled and the other two looked at Sirius "What did you have in mind?"

"How about ….."

"Oh Lily I wish I could have seen your sisters face when that owl landed on the table during breakfast." Emma laughed.

"It was so funny, she started crying." Lily snickered "But anyway how was your holiday?"

Emma sighed "It was fine. I would have much rather spend time with you guys but it was a good idea to spend some time with family. I missed so much. My mom got a promotion and I feel like even though I see my brother here sometimes I don't spend any time with him. He got a girlfriend. Can you believe it. My weird brother has a boyfriend."

Caitlin rubbed her head "I don't think I've ever seen your brother."

"That's what I mean. I know your siblings Leah."

Leah said "But they are in the same House, so that is easier."

"Today we will be learning the the Unlocking Spell. It is quite useful for opening doors and other such means. It is also the reversal spell of the Locking Charm, which we will learn next week. All the important information will be in your textbook and will be a part of your required reading for your homework, which is to write two full parchments about the Unlocking and the Locking spell, until next week. Now does anyone know the incantation for the Unlocking Spell?"

Remus, Lily, Leah and Severus' hand went up.

"Yes Miss Evans."

"Alohomora, sir."

"Correct Miss Evans, 10 points for Gryffindor. Now we will learn the movement for this incantation." Professor Lekaran said while moving his wand. "Everyone do it with me."

For the next hour the classroom was filled with students trying to unlock small boxes and some failing and some, like the smart Lily, who accomplished it, helping others.

"First day back and a two page essay. But at least we have Defense Against the Dark Arts now. So excited."

Caitlin smiled "I think we will be talking about Ghosts today. I feel as if Muggles are a lot more scared of ghosts than we are."

Lily giggled "That may have something to do with the fact that there are just random ghost floating around us."

"True." The four friends laughed.

"Good day class. Today we will be discussing Ghosts. I know we all see the ghosts around the castle but let's delve further into the material. What is a ghost?" Professor Kensington asked while writing on the board.

A Ravenclaw girl raised her hand, answered "A person who died."

"Yes 10 points to Ravenclaw, Miss Lits. But why are they still here. There are more people who died than there are ghosts."

Remus raised his hand.

"Yes Mr. Lupin."

"Only magical beings can turn into ghosts."

"Yes and more. Yes Miss Parker."

"Ghosts are, well were, afraid of death or they have… I mean had a strong connection to the place they stay at or haunt."

"Exactly, 10 points to each of you two. I think we all know a few ghosts already in this castle, so let's dive further into the topic."

"I love Professor Kensington for the fact that she rarely gives us homework." James moaned as they left the classroom.

Sirius roared a laughter "And the fact that she looks good has nothing to do with it?"

James cheek's reddened a bit "No."

The four friends laughed as they went for a snack in the Great Hall.

Their last lesson on a Friday was History of Magic, and no matter how interesting the subject could be, Professor Binns made it so that nobody was interested anymore. Lily was sitting next to Caitlin and Leah, who was sitting beside Remus and they were playing tic- tac- toe while Remus was still taking notes. Lily was looking further down the row and saw James and Sirius snoozing and Peter trying to scribble down notes.

"I can't believe they are sleeping."

Caitlin looked down "Well Binns is snooze- worthy."

"But still. What if they get caught?"

Emma chuckled "I don't think they would care about a detention. Anyway Binns never notices anything."

Caitlin added "They would never do that in McGonagall's class. She would make their life horrible."

Leah looked over "Who are we whispering about? Is it that Slytherin girl over there who has been digging her nose the whole time? Or that Hufflepuff who keeps looking over to you Lil?"

"We were talking about James and…. What do you mean? Nobody is looking at me!"

Emma chuckled again "There that Abbot boy, he keeps looking at you. He also does that in Herbology."

"He does not."

"So does" Caitlin snickers.

Binns clears his throat "Read the next chapter about Emeric the Evil" He left through the blackboard and with that he had dismissed the class. Remus pushed James arm from underneath his head, making it fall on the table and he was awake. The bang woke Sirius.  
"Wow, already over? I was just enjoying a nice rest."

"Let's go guys."

"Yes Remus sir."

"Shut it James."

"Lily, let's not do the homework right now. It snowed again! Let's go outside, build a snowman or something. We can do homework later and tomorrow." Emma whined.

"Did I hear snowman?" a deep voice said from behind, coming from Ryan "Let's do it."

Leah smiled brightly "Yes, come on Leah, if even our Head Boy said yes then we have to."

"It is just our Potions essay and the required reading for History of Magic and Transfiguration. Let's do one of those things first."

"Or" Emma started "we first go outside and have some fun then we eat and then we can do one of those things. Tomorrow we will do the rest. Come on Lil. It'll be fun."

Lily looked uncertain but then Ryan waved over his other sister and their friends and they were all excited, so she agreed. They said they were going to meet again in 15 minutes in the Common Room. The four girls ran upstairs to change into warmer clothes, scarfs and gloves then they ran back downstairs where Ryan, Drake and Kani were waiting.

Ryan sighed "Now we are again only waiting for Michelle and her friends. Of course they take the longest"

"Just go upstairs and tell her to hurry."

Drake, Kani and Ryan laughed "Only Kani or you could do that."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked.

Ryan looked at his friends and they nodded, so he went to the stair, took a deep breath and took a few steps up the girls dorm rooms. Five steps in, the stair turned flat, into a slide and Ryan slid down back to them."

Caitlin looked shocked "How? What?"

Kani laughed "It is something the Founders added, or maybe just ours and the Ravenclaw one, no boys can get up to the girls' dorm rooms. Quite clever."

Leah uttered "But I can go up to the boys dorm. How is that possible?"

Ryan answered "Yeah, we have a theory. We think it is because the Founders thought boys are bad influences and girls are smarter I guess."

Michelle walked down the stairs, saying "I would agree with that. Is everyone ready?" They all nodded, so they started their descent down the castle, towards an open field with lots of untouched snow.

"I want to build a snowman." Leah squealed excitedly. Lily started rolling a small snowball and Caitlin looked for some fallen down branches and stones. Emma just sat down in the snow and looked over them. "Let's do snow angles around it" she suggested.

After an hour of building perfect snowmen, a dozen at least, a snowball hit Leah straight on her head.

"Ryan! You will pay for this." She gathered up snow and threw it towards her brother who blocked it with a spell.

Emma yelled "No fair, no magic allowed."

Michelle agreed as she chunked a huge snowball at one of her friends. Lily picked up some snow and threw it at Caitlin. The rest of the group gathered into the snowball fight and it continued for another hour before Michelle called "I am completely frozen and starving. Let's go and get some dry clothes on and then head to the Great Hall." The group agreed and complied.

"I could really use a hot chocolate right now" Emma sighed as she sat down beside Leah, who was sitting beside her sister. As she said it her goblet in front of her filled with hot chocolate. "Whoaa. That is so cool."

Leah looked over "Oh I would love some hot coco too please." And her cup filled. "Some marshmallows? The small ones? 4?" 4 small marshmallows appeared. "Wicked."

Dinner progressed normally until they got to dessert. Lily tried to get some pudding but her spoon would not go into the pudding. "This is strange."

"Let me try it." Ryan said and tried to jab into it to get something for Lily but it never pierced the surface. "Strange." All around the Great Hall people were starting to notice that nobody could get some pudding. Even the professors started to notice. Dumbledore took a spoon and jabbed it into the pudding, it worked and then there was a popping noise and all puddings on every table exploded into glitter the colors of the Hogwarts houses. Students started clapping and laughing as well as the teachers after Dumbledore started.

Emma giggled "This is awesome!"

Caitlin asked "But who did it?"

Suddenly four boys at the Gryffindor table stood up and bowed. The Gryffindor table cheered even louder.

Leah laughed "Of course it was them."

Dumbledore stood and smiled "Congratulations Mr. Lupin, Mr. Black, Mr. Potter and Mr. Pettigrew for making this a welcome back nobody is going to forget too soon."


	16. Chapter 16

The full moon was starting to show and Leah was lying on her bed, moaning about a terrible headache she had. The headache had started yesterday but she did not want to acknowledge it due to the fact that she was planning Remus' birthday. She had written letters to both her parents and the Lupins and asked them to send his favorite cake: Chocolate Fudge and some presents. Today though her headache was much worse.

"Leah, please let me take you to Madam Pomfrey. She will know something that can help."

"No, it is fine. I suffered from this before. It's migraines, half of my family has it."

"But still this is really bad."

"Just let me sleep Lil."

Lily closed Leah's curtain and left.

"How is she?" Emma asked, sitting at the fire- place.

"Not doing good. But she refuses to go to Madam Pomfrey, she said she wants to sleep. If only she could. I heard her trashing around the whole night."

"Who was trashing around at night?" Sirius asked, sitting down onto the carpet at Emma's feet.

Caitlin closed her book and answered "Leah. She has a migraine."

"Again? She had one a month or so ago."

Emma nodded "She said it gets worse by strong changes of weather and other factors."

They were silent for a while until Remus came downstairs, looking white and very sickly.

"Remus you don't look so well." Lily stated.

"I am not feeling too well. I think I will head to the Hospital Wing and ask for something." With that he left.

Sirius scratched his head "He is also often sick. Almost always around the same time Leah is. I hope it's nothing too bad."

Emma feigned shock "Sirius, you do have feelings." The girls chuckled and Sirius tossed a pillow at her. "Where are the other two boys?"

"Detention. Slughorn saw them trying to steal some stuff from the cabinets for a prank we had in mind."

Lily shook her head but kept her disdain to herself. A owl tapped on the window and everyone looked over. It was Aurora, Lily's owl, she got up and let her in.  
"It's from my parents. They send me an update from my grandmother. She got quite ill and had to go to the hospital a few weeks ago."  
She read over the letter:  
 _Dear Lily- flower,_

 _We hope you are doing well and this letter finds you in good times. Grandma Maggie is doing a lot better and she sends you her love. She left the hospital a few days ago and is recovering at home, we of course check in on her daily. She hopes to see you soon. We were hoping you would come home during Easter but we understand why you want to stay. I think it is a great idea that you want to stay with your friends (This is Daddy!) We hope you are studying hard and having lots of fun. We are doing very well. Petunia is studying hard and I think she fancies a boy. We are also planning a summer vacation. How would you like to go to Germany or Spain maybe? Please write as soon as you can so we can start planning._

 _We love you Flower and hope to hear from you soon._

 _Love  
Mom and Dad_

"She is doing fine, she is at home even. They want me to send them a quick answer for our summer break. I will be right back." Lily stood and walked upstairs again. She heard a retching sound coming from their bathroom. She went to check and found Leah on the floor.

"Leah! Please let me take you to the Hospital Wing."

"No it'll be fine. I need to just rest."

"At least let me get you something. Anything."

"Lily? Leah?" A voice came from outside their dorm, it was Michelle. Lily went to open the door. Michelle looked worried. "How bad is it?"

Lily grimaced "I want to take her to the Hospital Wing but she does not want to."

"She is like that. Thank you Lily, I can handle it from here. Please go and enjoy the rest of your evening."

Lily smiled lightly, grabbed a parchment and quill and left to go back downstairs.

Ryan was sitting with her small group of friends. "How is she?"

"She was throwing up and she looks really pale and sick. I want to help her I just don't know how."

Ryan frowned "I have an idea." With that he got up and left.

Caitlin looked at Lily "If you want to I can go with you to the Owlry and drop of your letter. I have one to send to my mother." Lily agreed and they both left. With it being the beginning of March it was still chilly but one could manage with a jumper on. "Are you excited about spending Easter here?" Lily asked her brown- haired friend.

"Completely. I can't wait. I bet it will be nice weather and we can chill at the lake and maybe even visit Hagrid." Ever since that first meeting with Hagrid the four girls loved dropping by, sometimes the boys even accompanied them. Hagrid was so nice and knew really interesting stuff, even though his cooking was atrocious. After sending off their letters the two Gryffindor girls made their way back to the Common Room; almost there they spotted Ryan coming from a corner with a few drinks and different food items.

"Ryan, let us help you." Caitlin offered, taking a few of his things, Lily doing the same.

"Where did you get all of this?" Lily asked once they made it inside.

"The kitchens, where else?"

Sirius jumped up "You know where the kitchens are?"

"Of course. I found them with Drake in our third year."

"Can you show me?"

Ryan laughed "Not yet my little friend. Maybe as my parting gift for you." He smiled at them and then turned to the girls "Could one of you go upstairs to Leah and Michelle and tell them to come to the Head Room? The password is _Goblet_. Thank you."

Lily nodded with the explanation that she could drop of her quill and parchment. She ran up the stairs and saw the two sisters sitting on Leah's bed with Michelle rubbing something herbal smelling like onto her head.

"Hey, how are you?"

"I feel so bad. I just want to sleep."

"Ryan said you two should come to his Head Boy room. The password is Goblet. He brought some food."

Michelle smiled and wrapped a blanket around Leah "That sounds like a great idea. It will be quiet and dark there, come on Leah. Thank you so much Lily." The two girls left and Lily was left to wonder how the Gryffindor Head dorm looked like and how to get to the kitchens.

On the other side of the castle Remus was just being escorted by Madam Pomfrey towards the Whomping Willow. Remus felt worse this time. It hadn't been that bad ever since coming to Hogwarts. It got easier. He wrote as much to his family and they were so happy for him, his father had written that his mother had cried when she had read it. It was always a struggle. Lyall Lupin blamed himself a lot. He always thought that if he had just shut his mouth Fenrir Greyback would have never bitten Remus and he would never had to have to endure this much pain. When Dumbledore found out, he was very understanding. He was very considerate. He encouraged his parents to let Remus go to Hogwarts and they agreed, if a bit reluctant. But Dumbledore had shown them the Willow and how it would be protected. Remus can't actually remember his first Transition. He blacked out from the pain. The times after that he remembered. He remembered his bones breaking and re- growing, his nails changing, hair sprouting and his face morphing. What he also remembers, even more than the pain, are his parents; their worried faces, them being overly considerate and them fussing so much. He always appreciated Leah for her being so indifferent. He had never told her, too ashamed and scared of what would happen to their friendship. Leah never treated him differently whenever he was tired or in pain still. She just adapted some of their games. But now he had four more friends to worry about finding out.

"Here we are Mr. Lupin. I will be back first thing tomorrow morning, before sunrise. I wish you the best." Remus forced himself to smile at her, she was only doing her job and she cared. She patted his shoulder, sighed and whispered the spell to stop the tree. He went inside and walked along the path. The first time she and Professor Dumbledore had accompanied him. That had been worse. He would rather be alone. He felt uneasy today. He had felt this way a few times before. Sometimes he wondered if it would get easier.

The moon was full now, Remus knew because it had started to hurt so badly he was crying and screaming. He did not notice the little tabby cat sitting behind a thrown over desk. He didn't notice her slightly worried expression and he certainly did not realize the pain she was suffering for him insider her head.

He doesn't remember too much after that. He remembers waking up, feeling horrible, getting dressed and leaving through the tunnel again.

"Good morning Mr. Lupin, how was it?" Madam Pomfrey asked him once he had stepped through.

"It was alright." She looked at him worried but led him to the Hospital Wing, he was limping lightly. He forced on a natural expression. She led him to a bed at the end of the Wing with only one curtain drawn around the beds right beside his. She closed the curtains, cast a _Mufliato_ spell and examined him.

"Mr. Lupin, according to this, you have a badly sprained leg and far more bruises and cuts than the last time. Now tell me the truth, how was it really?"

He sighed and swallowed once "It was bad, really bad." Tears were forming in his eyes "It was so painful I think I tried crashing into things."

"You think?"

"I can't really remember. I ran against a mirror or something I think, head first. Like I said I don't remember too much."

"That is the first time since the very first night here. I remember you were worried badly to not fit it. You were scared your friend would reject you and that you would be alone. Now tell me what has you so worried? It can't be your friends; I see the four of you and you and Miss Parker. Thick as thieves as they would say in the Muggle World. So what is it?"

Remus shrugged "Maybe exams."

Madam Pomfrey tutted and gave him a potion, as always, then she gave him another one for the leg and then produced from her pocket a chocolate bar. "Eat this, it will help." She opened the curtains, lifting the silencing charm with it and smiled "Rest now Mr. Lupin, while you still can, before Miss Parker awakens."

He was confused but then he heard from the bed beside him "Remus?" The curtains opened and Leah was sitting there, looking a bit pale but smiling "What are you doing here? Are you alright?"

The matron sighed "I guess it is too late for rest now. Mr. Lupin wasn't feeling too well last night and had a bad reaction to something he ate. I found him lying in the library this morning. I need him to rest Miss Parker, just like you." With that she left.

Leah smiled "How are you doll? Are you in a lot of pain?"

He took a bite from his chocolate and offered Leah a piece, which she gladly accepted. "I am a lot better now thanks to a potion. Why are you here?"

Michelle and Ryan came through the doors "I'll tell you why she is here" the male started "She had such a bad migraine the last two days but would not come here, that it got so bad again that she said she couldn't see properly and started vomiting. Not a nice sight. Remus I hope you are feeling better, Madam Pomfrey told us about your stomach bug. Hope I did not eat the same thing as you, you look bad." He smiled at Remus and looked over to his sister "How are you feeling."

"Much better. Thank you for taking care of me."

"That's what we are here for." Michelle said "Madam Pomfrey told us to tell McGonagall that you two will be missing the whole day. So rest. Nothing stupid. Thank Merlin it is Friday so you two can rest and not worry. We will have the others give you notes and your assignments, if you need we will check by later again. Have a nice day you two." Michelle gave both of them a hug and the two older Parkers left.

"I am sorry about your migraine bug, wish I could have helped."

"By doing what? Vomiting on me? You know how much you hate that mint smell from the salve for my headaches. I hate it but it usually helps with normal headaches. Last night was weird, it got so bad I really couldn't see anymore. It scares me sometimes." She looked down and Remus could see, not for the first time but it was still rare, the girl underneath the confidence, the one scared of so many things, the one who already at such a young age puts on a mask to conceal that fear. This scared him. He tried to reach over but his side hurt him so badly it made him wince and groan.

"No doll! Don't strain yourself. Wait." She looked over to the matron's office, got out of bed, grabbed a book and slipped in beside Remus. It was a tight fit but he immediately felt better. Something about his best friend always comforted him. She sighed and opened the book on the first page. She started reading. Remus listened but soon fell asleep.

"Professor Slughorn actually gave us no homework, he was so perplexed by Peter's cauldron blowing up that he forgot." Remus woke to the sound of people talking, he opened his eyes to see the 6 other Gryffindors sitting between his and Leah's bed.

"It wasn't tha- that bad." Peter squeaked, his face turning purple.

Sirius roared with laughter "You got your potion all over Slughorn's robes and managed to push Quinzy into his own potion. It was hilarious."

"You pushed Quinzy into a potion?"

Everyone turned "Mate, you are awake. Leah said you were sleeping the whole time. How you feelin? Should have told us you were feeling really bad. Could have brought you here earlier." James said while brushing a hand through his hair.

"I'm alright. I'll be out of here by tonight. Which potion did Peter explode."

Sirius answered "I don't even know how he did it. It's not even one that can blow up. Slughorn made us repeat the Forgetfulness potion for our exams in July. And somehow Peter made it blow up."

Peter smiled sheepishly "I only put in the ingredients that were in the book."

James laughed "Obviously not."

Madam Pomfrey ushered them all out, claiming the two Gryffindors needed time to rest or else she would not release them tonight.

Leah turned to Remus one more time "So, Remy," she grinned knowing how much he hated that nickname "what do you want to do for your birthday?"

Remus thought about his birthday in 2 days. He knew he would still be a bit weak, especially after such a bad full moon, but he also saw the light in Leah's eyes, knowing she would want him to feel special. "You know what I really want to do?"

She looked at him expectantly.

"I want to eat loads of cake, play some chess and try to find the Kitchens without anyone else."

Leah smiled at the prospect of the familiar and the unfamiliar. "Then I guess we know what we will do for your birthday."


	17. Chapter 17

After Remus and Leah had been released from the Hospital Wing they had celebrated Remus birthday the way he wanted it. Another two weeks had passed and the students of Hogwarts were sitting in their last class before the Easter Holidays. Many students, especially the 5th and 7th years had chosen to remain in Hogwarts to study for their upcoming exams. Others were leaving to go home, among them were Peter and Caitlin. Caitlin had initially wanted to stay but her parents insisted she come home. Lily had wanted to spend the holidays at Hogwarts to study, Leah had decided to spend it in the castle as well, due to her brother and sister both staying and Remus as well because his parents were visiting relatives in Ireland. Emma stayed because she started talking to this Hufflepuff guy in the year above them and Sirius and James decided to plan out some new pranks for the last few months in Hogwarts.

Lily was sitting in the Great Hall munching on a sandwich waiting for Leah and Emma to show up so they could escort Caitlin to the carriages.  
"Hello Lily. Are you also staying in Hogwarts?"

She turned to find Severus Snape standing behind her; "Yes, I wanted to study a bit for our upcoming exams. We should do it together Severus. We haven't been spending a lot of time together."

"I would like that. Maybe we could-" he was interrupted by Leah "Eh, Lily. Let's go, Cait is ready to leave. Oh- sorry, didn't want to interrupt. I will be at the front gate."

Severus looked back at her "Are the others staying as well?"

Lily packed her book "The girls? Yes, except for Caitlin, she needed to go home."

"I heard Black, Potter and Lupin are staying as well. Don't they have families to visit."

"I don't know Severus, can we meet up later? I promised Caitlin I would escort her to the carriages and I want to say goodbye. Later tonight after dinner I wanted to go to the library to start on History of Magic, maybe you would like to join me?"

Severus nodded "I will meet you there. Or we can walk together from here."

"Great. See you later Severus." She ran towards the front gate where the three other girls were already standing. "Sorry. Oh Cait, I will miss you. I hope you have a great Easter and nice holidays with your family."

"Thank you Lily. I wish you guys the same. I will write and I will see you again in two weeks." The four girls group- hugged and Caitlin stepped onto a carriage with Peter, who was waving to the three Gryffindor boys.

Emma asked "Did the Momsten twins stay?"

Lily shook her head "No I saw Elise packing her trunk this morning."

Emma nodded, twirled her hair and said she was off to meet the Hufflepuff boy.

Leah chuckled "I think we just lost two friends for the holidays. But you still have me, what do you want to do tonight?"

"I wanted to go study with Severus, but maybe tomorrow we can go to the lake if it is nice and warm."

"Sounds good. But why study on the first few free hours. Just relax."

"You can relax with the boys over there, I want to start studying for the exams."

"Fine. I learned not to go against your wish to study. Have fun though."

The librarian, Madam Celest Grud's shrill voice was heard yelling "Mr. Potter! Mr. Black! This library is not here for you to plan another one of your silly pranks or cause mischief. Either use your time here wisely or leave."

Sirius and James appeared where Lily and Severus were sitting "I saw some other books, which sounded interesting right there." James pointed to a shelf to the right.

"I also managed to sneak one of the smaller books while she was ranting. So the one plan we have could actually work."

Severus scoffed.

The Gryffindors ignored him and Sirius continued "I think lagoon sounds better than swamp. Seems like less smell and less grime."

"Good one. I also found a book Slughorn was talking about, about the sirup." He looked around "You know mate, for the you know whats."

Lily sighed "Madam Grud told you to use your time wisely in here."

Sirius grinned "Well using time wisely depends on who you ask."

James agreed "I think this is time used greatly."

Severus scoffed again. "Anything to add Snivellus?"

"Don't call him that James!"

"Well Lily, if he were to wash himself once in a cold moon then I would not need to. His greasy hair is leaving stains all over the parchment."

"Good one, mate" Sirius laughed.

"Just leave, you are insufferable." Lily sighed.

Sirius laughed again "Let's go find Remus mate, he will help."

"Don't put him into your little schemes. And anyway he is with Leah and Emma."

James eyebrows rose "Two more people to help. You wouldn't happen to know where they are?"

Lily stared at him "I will not help you in one of your pranks. I don't search for trouble."

Sirius nudged a chair "Even if we told you where the kitchens are?"

That peaked Lily's interest "You found them?"

James ruffled his hair, a habit he had started after Christmas once his hair had started growing out "Not yet, but we will find it before my birthday."

"When is it?"

"Three days."

Severus sneered "You will never find it. It is hidden, like all the secrets of this castle."

Sirius looked down at him, raised an eyebrow and said "Secrets are there to be found. Let's go mate. We will find them alone."

"Lily, tell us where they are. I can also help you for our Transfiguration assignment." James grinned, knowing how badly she had struggled in their latest lesson and how she and some others had gotten the assignment to study that spell, because it would be important for their exams. Her eyes grew big.

"Promise you won't do anything dangerous or harmful or really stupid."

The boys looked at each other and nodded "Promise."

"The last I heard they wanted to visit Hagrid."

"Thanks Lily. We can start practicing that spell after my birthday." And with that the two boys left.

Lily smiled a small smile and returned to her books while Severus scoffed again "They are so childish. I do sometimes think you were put in the wrong house, I feel like Slytherin would have been a better choice for you."

Lily wrinkled her nose "Well I believe the Sorting Sat had its reasons so I will not question him."

"Apparently the hat is a relic from one of the founders. I wonder whose it is though."

She flipped a page "Maybe we will learn that in History of Magic, or in one of the books in here." Severus looked at her and nodded. "What did your parents say when you told them you wanted to stay here for the holidays?"

"They understood that I wanted to study. I don't want them to feel like I am wasting my time here and not studying. I want to make them proud."

"Ah yes Lily, as we should." Lily wrinkled her forehead again. "What about you Severus? What did your parents say?"

"Nothing, my father apparently said he expected me to stay here and do my work to become smart."

"Oh." She had nothing to say about it, knowing how much problems Severus had with his father and returned to her books.

"You kids don't do anything stupid with your little prank." Hagrid's booming voice said while the 5 Gryffindors walked back to the castle, waving back at the half- giant.

"This seems so irresponsible and so amazing at the same time." Emma giggled. "Lily would not approve."

Sirius grinned "Lily was actually the one who told us where you were."

Remus gaffed "Are you sure? The red- haired Lily who loves rules?"

"The same one, of course I had to persuade her with some extra lessons in Transfiguration."

Emma laughed "So that's what you call it." Everybody laughed while James turned a slight shade of red.

Leah cleared her throat "So this prank of yours, what does it entail and what do we have to do."

"Good that you asked. I want to create a small lagoon for one week in front of the Slytherin Common Rooms. I want the first few ones to step out of their Common Room to step right into it and the rest of them to have to squeeze by to get away from their dorms."

Remus asked "How are you planning on creating a timed swamp?"

Sirius answered "Lagoon, not swamp. Swamp seems messy and smelly, lagoon sounds sophisticated. And that is where you come in."

Remus nodded and one could practically see the wheels in his head spinning.

"I am guessing you will transform something to create the lagoon, may I ask what?"

"Why yes Leah" James said "I want to create a small liquid in a vial and accidently drop it in front of their Common Room."

"Which liquid?"

Sirius winked "That is what this book is for. It is about magic with water based substances. And the rest we just create as we go along."

Remus sighed "Seems like a foolproof plan. Let's start."

Three days later Lily, Emma and Leah were sitting in front of the fire, eating their chocolate eggs and Lily telling them all about Easter in the Muggle world when the three Gryffindor boys came down and walked over to them.

"Leah we need your help."

Lily rolled her eyes "Which part of the plan has to involve Leah so badly?"

Sirius half shouted "You told her?"

Lily shook her head "The less I know the better for me."

Sirius nodded "Right, so Leah could you come over here for a sec?"

Leah turned to her friends "One minute."

"We need you to get us some stuff from Slughorn."

"Right, yeah, James I will just walk into his office and grab some things, sure thing." She half- turned around when Sirius grabbed her hand "Let him finish Princess."

"Princess?"

"Not the time! Listen to me. We have a chocolate egg here which is filled with a gummy that will knock him out for 6 minutes, once he has eaten it. We know that he loved your parents, so if you say they had sent him a little Easter present and you wanted to know some things about your parents in Potions back in the day, he will talk and eat and then you can get us these products."

Leah looked at Remus who seemed to understand "I made the gummy, it will work. Trust me doll."

She sighed "Fine, but I want something for that. Don't know what yet, but I will find something. Give me the egg." They handed her the egg and the list of things she needed to get and she turned around to walk back upstairs.

"Leah, you need to go the other way."

"I know what I am doing, let me prepare. Now go, shoo, do something useful."

"Ah Miss Parker, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Good evening professor Slughorn, I hope you had a nice Easter here in the castle, I know it is really late but my parents had sent this for you" she held out the egg "to tell you thank you and holiday greetings. They speak so highly of you. Especially my father with you having invited him to your parties."

"Ah yes, Richard Parker was a talented student. Of course a very fine Minister as well. Thank you Miss Parker, would you like to come inside, I might be able to tell you one or two things"

"I would like that very much."

10 minutes later Leah was leaving the office of professor Slughorn after he had apologized profusely for having fallen asleep and Leah half- hiding her bag with all the ingredients and reassuring him that it was alright and she should not have intruded this late.

"You really are the best Leah." Sirius said and hugged her tightly.

Leah laughed "That was so weird, he took the whole thing and ate it and 10 seconds later he was out cold. He said he was so tired because it was very stressful the last few weeks. I think I embarrassed him."

"Now we just need to finish the potion. Remus let's go we might be able to finish it tonight and then tomorrow can be the big reveal. In time for your birthday mate."

James laughed "Best birthday present ever."

"Where do you think the boys are. I wanted to wish James a Happy Birthday." Emma looked around the Great Hall.

"It is still very early and I bet they are still sleeping." Lily answered while grabbing one more toast.

Leah was checking the entrance of the door every few seconds, because she knew that the 4 boys had laid the trap yesterday and came back laughing and excited. None of the Slytherins had yet to arrive in the Great Hall. Not a lot were in Hogwarts anyway because a lot of them had gone home.

Lily turned to Leah "Is everything alright with you?"

The girl nodded "We just want to see James."

As if on cue, the three boys came into the hall laughing and holding their sides. Remus looked up long enough to steer them towards the three girls.  
Leah and Emma jumped up "Happy Birthday James." And gave him a hug.

"Thank you."

Lily looked up "Happy Birthday."

He nodded and looked towards the entrance again. Three Slytherins came in, covered in slime and goo and the boys broke into laughter again.

"Oh I did not think it would look like that." Emma wondered.

Remus laughed "We added a little something special, it won't last forever." Another few Slytherins came in, fuming and raging on how to get it off. The rest of the Great Hall broke into laughter.


	18. Chapter 18

Lily was stressing. It was already late- April and exams were coming up sooner than she had thought. "I wish I could remember all the ingredients for the Sleeping Drought, but I keep forgetting Worm-warts."

"Lily it's okay. Exams are in a month, we have more than enough time."

"Aren't you the least bit worried" Lily asked Emma.

"Course I am, especially History of Magic, what a dull subject."

"I haven't even started that yet. I am so busy with Potions and Transfiguration."

Emma sighed, knowing how much Lily struggled with Transfiguration. "It'll be okay, hasn't James been helping you?"

"He has" Lily sighed "it just comes so easily to him and I don't get it. And McGonagall is our Head of House, it would be so embarrassing if I would not be able to pass the exam."

Leah's voice came from beside them suddenly, having just stepped up to them "You will pass, we all will."

"You also seem way to relaxed for exams coming up."

Leah smiled "I wish you would not stress so much. Come on, tomorrow after class we head out to the lake and enjoy the sun."

Lily thought about that for a while and then nodded, thinking that maybe a day off would be good for her and she wanted to spend some more time with her friends because her first year in Hogwarts would be over soon. She hoped nothing would change next year. She loved her life here with her friends. Lily thought back to this time last year, nobody understood her and thus she did not have any friends. Most thought she was weird and others thought she was just the younger sister of Petunia Evans and the cute daughter of Rose and Thomas who was always nice and never did anything wrong expect the occasional blowing up small stuff or finding herself in weird spots in which she did not know how she got there. But here people understood her and liked her, nobody thought she was weird. Well maybe a few but that was only because she was studying so hard.

Leah pulled her out of her thoughts "What are you thinking about?"

She smiled "Just how great this year was and how glad I am to have met you guys."

Leah grinned and agreed.

"Mate that is way too boring. We can't follow a swamp with a the swapping of the pudding with a potion that tastes like fish." Sirius voice drawled from their usual spot under the tree by the lake.

Remus looked up from a Potions book he had lent from the library "Then what do you suggest?"

James swept his hand through his hair "We need something big to go out with. Something small for right now and then at the end after the exams something big."

Peter was looking at all of them "Any ideas?"

James was silent for a moment "I liked the pudding idea, but not with the end effect. It needs something different. Let's brainstorm that idea before putting off the pudding. But for now, how about toying with Flying Class or maybe even Charms. We could change the words on Lekarans notes to make him say gibberish."

"You really think he won't know what he was going to say by heart now? He has been teaching here for 20 years." Remus said with an eye roll.

Peter frowned "How do you know that?"

"Because he said so in the first lesson."

"Oh."

"Well Remus then you come up with something intelligent. Apparently we have nothing."

He shrugged "I will think of something. I'll see you guys later at the Great Hall."

Peter looked up "Where are you going?"

"To study with Leah for Charms."

"Lily stop it."

"What am I doing now Emma?"

"You are clicking your jaw, it is driving me insane. Just take a breath and relax."

"Exams are in a month. I can't relax."

Remus appeared behind them "Is everything alright?"

"Hi Remus, yes everything is fine if Lily would stop clicking her jaw or cracking her knuckles or snapping her fingers or flicking her tongue everytime she gets really stressed." Lily glared at Emma. "Please sit Remus."

"I was supposed to meet Leah here for Charms revision."

"Yeah she is sitting with us, she just had to run back to the dorm, she forgot some of her notes."

Remus nodded and sat. "Where is Caitlin?"

"She is not feeling too well, she went to the Hospital to get something for her upset stomach."

He nodded again. "Hi Remus, Sorry I am late. I ran."

He looked up to see Leah with hair sticking in every direction "I can see that." Leah pulled a face at him and tied her hair in a pony tail.

"So how far were we last time, I kinda lost track off all the notes I took and now I am lost."

Remus pulled out his notes and before he could even look through them Leah had snatched them from his grip and started sorting hers based on his notes. Lily and Emma looked at them in amusement.

"Ah there we go, wow we are almost done. We just started the Mending Spell, only three more and then we have them all perfected. Let's start." Remus just had to smile at his best friends hyperness. She looked over and he asked "Tell me honestly, how many cups of tea did you have this morning?"

She pulled another face at him and the other two girls had to laugh.

Professor Sprout's loud booming voice echoed through the greenhouse while she asked "What is the main usage of Dittany?"

Lily's hand shot up. "Yes Miss Evans."

"It is used for Potions and is mostly used for its healing abilities. But also it is a wand core- mostly for the wands specialized for potion making."

"Excellent, 10 points to Gryffindor." Lily smiled and turned back to her paper as Professor Sprout continued asking review questions for the upcoming exam.

"Now the Puffapod? Can anyone tell me what this plant does?" Remus head gave a little tug and he was at first confused because it was nowhere close to the Full Moon but then he turned his attention back on Professor Sprout who indeed was holding up a Puffapod and an idea came to him. He turned to Sirius who was sitting beside him lazily drawing a plant which was eating somebody who looked like Professor Slughorn. "I got an idea for the end-of-term prank, let's talk after class." Sirius face lit up and turned to James to whisper it to him.

The 4 boys were the first ones to leave the Greenhouse and turned a corner. "Come on mate, tell us your brilliant plan. We gotta head to Transfiguration soon." James said excitedly.

"When Professor Sprout was talking about Puffapods I remembered something I read once."

"Your plan involves flowers?"

"Peter let me finish. I read in one of the Potion books we have upstairs that the essence of a Puffapod combined with a Screechsnap and some other ingredients can make bubbles appear when combined with oxygen and a bacteria which funnily enough we have in our stomach."

Sirius was grinning now "Brilliant, we can make everybody speak bubbles."

Remus nodded and said "We gotta look that up tonight so we can start planning."

James laughed "Mate you are a genius. I might even have an idea for a small prank to pull."

"Lily you are driving me insane."

"I can't stop it Leah it is a nervous habit."

Emma sighed while Leah continued "You heard McGonagall today, she said she prepared us all so well we will all pass and that with really great marks so please Lil just for one night relax. We have one more month it will all be fine."

Lily returned to her books and cracked her knuckles in her hand again, the two other girls sighed and once she cracker her neck Leah stood and left the dorm mumbling about insanity and how she would rather be knocked out cold today. Upon entering the boys dormitory she groaned, seeing the boys sitting on the floor with books and parchment surrounding them. "Not you guys too. I thought I would have some quiet from studying for an hour or so. But no, here you are studying."

"Close the door Leah" James said and Leah did as commanded "We are not studying."

Awareness dawned on her face "Ah prank time. What have you got planned?"

Sirius laughed "We are not telling you but maybe you can help for a smaller idea."

"Sure, anything to get me away from Lily and her insane knuckle cracking."

Remus looked up "She is still studying, it is 7. She should rest a bit."

"I will tell her you said so and then maybe she will believe me. So how can I help?"

Peter tried to gently push back some of the notes they were scribbling on but Leah noticed. "You don't need to hide them I won't tell and I certainly won't try to copy. Let me help I can't study anymore."

Sirius smiled at her "Sorry Leah, no telling this time."

"You said I could help!"

"I changed my mind, but maybe you can help Remus get some things from the library."

She nodded and Remus and she left towards the library.

"Why do you need so many books?"

Remus struggled to pile one more in his arms "Because our plan needs some precision and whatever you may think we are still only First Years and we do not yet have the knowledge your brother has."

"I don't even think Ryan has all the knowledge he should have. But you know what, while you were browsing I flipped through some of these books and a lot of them say the same things. So I would suggest you" she took 3 of his books and 4 of hers and moved them to the side "leave these here and if there is still something missing we can come back tomorrow. Now we only have 3 books each to carry."

"Alright sounds like a plan. Let's go. - - - Where are you going?" He asked her as she took a left at the corridor.

"I've never went this way before and I haven't explored enough yet of the castle for my first year."

"But we are heading down, it is only the Hufflepuff Common Room and some class- and storage rooms."

Leah rolled her eyes "So, where is your sense of adventure?" Remus huffed and hurried to walk beside her.

"I heard that the Hufflepuff Common Room is the most secure dormitory in Hogwarts. Nobody is able to enter."

He frowned again "Aren't all of them protected by passwords or so?"

"That's what I was thinking but apparently Hufflepuff is the most secure of them all. Apparently if an intruder comes in they will get doused in some form of spray or liquid."

"How do you know all of that?"

"I listen closely, doll. You should try it once." He shoved her and she giggled and said "This has so many paintings here."

"The whole of Hogwarts has a lot of paintings."

"Yeah but these here are different somehow, more peaceful in a way, they are all different dishes and food items. And this one is completely different." They now stood in front of a still- life painting, a bowl of fruit. The other paintings in this hallway all had different dishes and fully prepared meals on them while this was the only one with just a bowl of fruit. Remus moved a bit closer to the painting "It looks old."

Leah snorted "Really Remus? A painting in a thousand year old castle looks old? I never would have guessed."

He rolled his eyes "No come closer, look at this. It looks like it was touched a lot." She moved closer and saw what he meant "Yeah but look, only the pear looks like it was touched." She touched the pear and moved over a slightly rough spot on the pear and the pear began to giggle, the two kids jumped back, suddenly the painting opened revealing a door which led to

"The kitchen." Leah exclaimed "I don't believe it, we just found the kitchens." They walked in and saw the huge kitchen and two other people standing there "Ryan, Michelle, what are you doing here?" Leah's siblings turned to them and when Leah looked again 2 house- elfs came up to them and greeted them and asked them what they wanted. Leah and Remus were overwhelmed so Ryan said "If you would be so kind and get these two some tea, something calming like chamomile." The elfs ran off and bowed.

Michelle put down her cookie "So you found the kitchen. Ryan wanted to wait till the last day to show you but I guess he does not need to do that anymore. How did you find it?"

Remus put his books on the table and thanked the elf who brought the tea "Leah wanted to explore the basement."

Ryan chuckled "Of course you are dragging him around again." Leah just stuck her tongue out.

"We were looking at the paintings and thought this one looked different and the pear seemed to be touched a lot so we touched it to feel for a difference and it giggled. And here we are now."

Leah nodded "That basically sums up the last few minutes."

"Well welcome to the kitchens I guess."

"Why are you down here?"

The oldest grinned "We just did not want to study anymore. N.E.W.T.s are driving everybody insane and Chel here can't stand her roommates revision of History of Magic anymore." Michelle chuckled "Well I think revising it six times a day is a bit too much." She turned to the two young Gryffindors "it is nice to be able to just come down here for a tea and a snack and just relax a bit, also it always gave us some time to talk and eat some chocolate chip cookies when we couldn't sleep or needed to talk." Leah smiled at the family tradition of cookies and late night talking as Michelle continued "Ryan showed me at the end of my first year here in Hogwarts and we were hoping to do the same to you but you beat us to that. Maybe you will be able to show Ashley." Leah nodded. Remus decided it was time to bring the books back upstairs and they turned to leave when Ryan called after them "Don't yet tell the others, let that be my parting gift for you."


	19. Chapter 19

„Please remember anybody trying to cheat will fail this exam and high consequences will follow. Now you are all well prepared so I will ask you now to flip your paper over and you may start … now." Professor McGonagall said.  
Papers were flipped and for a few seconds nothing was heard and then the scratching of quills was the only thing to be heard. Lily was writing like a maniac, hoping she would not forget anything. Emma was scratching her head, trying to remember the right wand movement and the function of some spells. Professor McGonagall had no doubt in her mind that all of the students would pass.

"That was not that bad." Lily sighed afterwards. Emma rolled her eyes "Please tell me you are not one of those who will have to talk about all the questions after the test?" Lily's eyes widened and she immediately shook her head.

Caitlin rubbed her eyes "Thank Merlin there is only Astronomy and Potions left. I feel like my head is going to fall off."

Lily sighed again "I suggest we wake up early to look over Astronomy and then sleep a bit more after lunch to be wide awake for the exam. And now I want to look over that one potion again, ugh why can't I remember its name."

Leah grinned "The Forgetfulness Potion Lil, how ironic. But I say we first go eat something and maybe relax a bit. There is no need to run straight into studying again."

"We need to pass."

"And we will. Come on, of to the Great Hall."

"Jenny is so excited for me to come home that she wrote me she is planning a party for me." James looked up to see the four girls walking towards them, he turned to Leah "Jen also said she has been planning it with Ashley."

Leah looked at him "Oh the party, yeah I heard about that. But to be honest from what Ashley wrote it seems more like it has my mom written all over that. I mean she already has 2 parties planned; one for Ryan and his completion of Hogwarts and one for Michelle when she gets her OWL results back. It's hilarious."

Lily smiled, wondering what it would be like to have a strong and loving connection again with her sister. She had not heard from her since she arrived in Hogwarts. Her parents kept her informed and told her Petunia wanted to start a dancing class but the slots were all filled already so she had to wait until she was almost 16. This had upset her badly. Lily had stopped trying to write to her after Christmas, she had never gotten a reply back. Leah's voice pulled her out of her thoughts "You all will definitely come over for a week or so, right? I mean after Remus and I come back from our vacation."

Emma smiled "I want to, for sure. I remember you saying something about more Parker Bashes in the future and I want to be part of the glamour." Leah smiled at that.

Sirius asked "Do you and Remus always go on vacation together?"

Remus swallowed his bite and answered "Most of the time, our mothers are inseparable."

James ran his hand through his hair, a habit he had picked up after Christmas, once his hair had started to grow out. "My father was talking about getting together again soon too Leah. He says he hates having grown apart from his Hogwarts friends."

Lily frowned "Your parents knew each other?"

James smiled "Yeah, my dad was two years above Leah's mom but they were friends and kept in contact for a while but then Auror training was tough on my dad and Leah's mom was touring the country. Her mom also got married very young, didn't she?"

"She did, my parents had been dating since she was 14 and my dad was almost 16 and they got married when she was 19. Of course it was a big scandal a bit, a Slytherin and a Gryffindor and of course who my parents families were and my dad wanting to be a politician and all that, it was nuts."

Lily turned to James "Did your parents get married that young too?"

"No, my mom is 6 years younger than my dad, he was her trainer in Auror practice and after she graduated there, which was when she was 21 they started dating. By the time they got married Mrs. Parker already had her first child. My parents took the slow road. They also never thought Jenny would happen, but it was a nice surprise."

Leah turned to Lily "Did your parents meet in school?"

She shook her head "No, nothing like that. My father's family owns a flower shop and at Valentine's day he was delivering flowers and he delivered flowers to my mom from her boyfriend and he claims he could not get her out of his head. My mom loved the flowers and kept going back to that particular flower shop and always got the same flowers: tulips and one day she came in and ordered roses, lilies and petunias and my father was so perplexed he asked her why and she answered that she had just gotten out of her relationship and she needed a change and that she didn't even like tulips that much. The next Valentine's day my father bought the three different kinds of flowers, went to her flat and asked her on a date. They have been together ever since."

"That is so cute. I want to one day have a story like that, something fluffy and sweet." Emma sighed and Leah rolled her eyes "Dreaming of your Prince Charming again Emma?" Emma only sighed again.

Remus asked "So what are your plans for now?"

Lily eager to talk about studying with somebody who was most likely just as eager jumped at the opportunity to talk "We wanted to look over some potions again and tomorrow over Astronomy and again after a nap so we are refreshed for the exam."

"I will join. It seems you have everything figured out quite well."

Peter sighed "Only two more exams and then we are done. My head hurts from all the studying."

Caitlin smiled "Well Lily keeps forgetting the name of the Forgetfulness Potion, I would say she is ready for exams to be over." Everyone laughed at that and Lily turned slightly pink.

Leah turned to the boys again "Is everything ready for your guys' big surprise?" They looked around and then nodded eagerly which made Leah grin.

Lily saw that "Are you doing something stupid again?"

They shook their heads and Lily roller her eyes.

"Who decided to have Astronomy at midnight." Leah groaned, walking towards the Astronomy Tower.

Lily was looking over the chapter one more time "It would not make sense for it to be at 3 in the afternoon, there would be no stars."

"Lil I was being dramatic. Let's just get this over with so I can go back to bed."

The telescopes were already set up beside a small desk each. Lily gulped, she hoped she remembered all the moons and star combinations they had studied.

"Please begin." Parchment ruffled, quills scratched and telescopes were adjusted. It was so quiet Lily though she could hear the darkness and that messed with her brain a bit. She scolded herself and turned back to name the constellation which she was looking at. She heard Sirius snigger and wondered what he was laughing about. She looked over at Leah and she was scribbling something, the tip of her tongue poking out, as she was biting it, a little tick Leah had, which she thought was cute.

"5 more minutes."

She looked over her answers again and then put her quill down and waited the last 5 minutes. Their papers flew out of their hands and Professor Circe released them, all of them exhausted and ready for sleep.

"So Lily, do you finally remember the name of the potion you keep forgetting?" Sirius mocking voice came from in front of Lily, where she was sitting in an armchair in the Common Room. She sneered at him and asked "What were you sniggering at last night at the Astronomy exam?"

"Oh she had my telescope set on the Dog Star. And then the next one was the constellation of Orion."

Leah and Remus laughed and Lily frowned "What? I don't get it."

"The Dog Star, also known as Sirius."

Realization dawned on her "Ah, yes I remember and what is so funny about the Orion constellation?"

"My father's name is Orion. And it is also my second name." Lily also joined in on the laughter.

Emma closed her book "I can't believe tomorrow it will finally be over and then it is only 3 more weeks and they will be so relaxed. I can't wait."

"We should then try to find the kitchens." James exclaimed, Leah and Remus shared a knowing smile and returned to their books.

Caitlin added "I heard they were somewhere close to the Astronomy Tower."

"Then we shall start out search there. And we will not stop until we find them."

Remus smirked "But no outside help. We can't ask anybody."

Sirius grinned "Agreed."

"Congratulations, you have finished your Potions examination." Professor Slughorn said and waved them goodbye.

"So lunch?" Leah smiled and everyone agreed but Lily said "I think I will go upstairs for a bit and lie down. I will meet you later."

"Okay, if you say so. We will probably be at the lake."

Lily walked towards the stairs which would lead her to the Gryffindor Tower but decided against going there right away, she turned left and just walked along some corridors. She passed students, some who were already done and celebrating or relaxing and some who were still studying for their final examinations. She smiled and waved at some First Years with whom she had some classes. She had no clue where she was walking towards, she just wanted to walk. She was still very aware of everything, scared she would wake up one day and all of this would have been a dream. She was also thinking of the next few weeks, a little scared of going back home. What if she had no contact with her friends and they would forget her? What if the situation with her sister would not get better and she was lonely the whole summer. Well she thought of Severus and how he would be there for her during their holidays. She had spent more time with him over the course of their studying and she had appreciated his company. He was a good friend and would remain so she believed. She wished he and her other friends would become friends as well but that seemed unlikely, Severus was mostly rude and would not talk to them and her friends had stopped making advances.  
In the end she had indeed ended up before the Common Room and decided to change before meeting the others at the lake, she did have enough of wearing her school uniform.

"Lily how smart! We should have changed clothes before coming here." Emma exclaimed, having taken off her shoes and socks, and like Leah and Caitlin and Remus, was having her feet in the water.

Lily answered "I had enough of wearing the uniform."

Leah nodded while exclaiming how much she wanted to get out of hers as well.

Lily turned to them once more "Did you find the kitchens?"

Peter shook his head and Remus mumbled "No we did not. I think we need to do some more searching soon." Lily wanted to say something more but was interrupted by 2 owls flying over them and landing at their feet, one in front of Leah and one in front of Lily. They each took their letters and the owls flew off to the Owlry. Lily opened hers and started to read.

 _Dearest Lily,_

 _We know you had your final examination today and hope this letter arrives you before it still. If not we know you did well. More than well mostly._

 _We wanted to tell you how much we miss you and are happy to see you soon again. Petunia is well and she has her final examinations next week. Grandmama and Grandpapa are well as well and want to know if we wanted to go to the North of France with them during the summer. I hope you can send word soon so we can check for hotels and some things to do. We know you will want to also spend some time with your friends and have already gotten an invitation from the Parkers for a Summer Bash and a Garden Party and a School End Festival and we would like to go. Of course we could not refuse due to you being friends with their daughter and we do like them._

 _Lately neighbors have been asking about where you were and how they had not seen you around. We did have to tell them about your boarding school in Scotland and most said they would like to hear about it as to maybe send their own children there if it is a good school. You might need to come up with a good excuse._

 _Please write back as soon as you can and know that we love you so much._

 _Mamma and Papa_

Lily smiled and rolled up her letter.

"Oh goodness, my parents apparently invited all of you to our 3 parties we are hosting this summer. Please do not feel obliged to attend if you don't want to or can't make it. I totally understand, I imagine we all have better things to do than sit in my garden making small talk."

Sirius looked up "They invited us all?"

"Yes it says here to invite all of you. I know Remus will show up and James might be dragged to one or two by his parents but the rest have no obligation." Remus nodded and took the letter from her.

Lily smiled "Well I would love to go. As do my parents." Leah smiled at that and then turned to James "Jenny and Ashley have decided to host the party at our house. The first Saturday after we come back with everybody there."

James grinned "Of course they would, Jenny just loves your pool in your garden."

"Who doesn't?"

Peter stuttered "My family is going to Norway. I won't be able to make it."

"That is too bad Peter I would have liked to have you come. Remus and my families will go to the Maldives I believe this year and then we will most likely just roam around the house and Diagon Alley. We must all get our books together and eat some ice cream at Florence Forteskue."

A murmur of agreement came back to her and Lily was already concocting the letter back to her parents, telling them all about her exams and her agreement for the parties and France.


	20. Chapter 20

„Where is Remus?" Lily looked around in confusion, sitting at the Gryffindor table.

"He wasn't feeling well yesterday, he was throwing up last night and went to Madam Pomfrey in the evening."

"Poor guy, he is sick so often." Emma sighed.

Leah turned "He always has been, Mrs. Lupin once said he was a very sickly baby because his immune system is not fully developed. And she has the same thing, she gets very sick very badly and then Remus always helps. I will go by the Hospital Wing later if anybody wants to join."

There were some murmurs of agreement and the girl turned back to her plate, making a silent mark to stop by the kitchens to get Remus some of the chocolate muffins, since they were his favorite.

"Hey doll, how are you? Are you feeling a bit better?"

Remus looked up and smiled tiredly "Yes I am, but very tired. I am happy to see you, but you did not have to come."

"You always visit me when I am in here with a migraine so I thought I could do the same. Besides you are my best friend and I want to make sure you are alright. Here I brought you something." Leah pulled out two chocolate muffins, at the sight of which Remus eyes got round and his pupils dilated slightly. She chuckled and handed them to Remus.

"Your mom sent you a letter but since you weren't at the Great Hall your owl brought it to me." Handing him the letter she noticed he sighed lightly as he noticed it wasn't opened yet.

"I would never open a personal letter of you Remus and you know it."

He turned a slight shade of pink, which made him look healthier but also guilty "I know and it isn't like I would keep a secret from you, it is just that mom has not been feeling to well again and I asked if she wanted me to come home." Leah nodded and watched him open and then read the letter, he smiled slightly at some parts and at others something crossed his eyes but Leah could not recognize what it could be.

"Is she alright?"

He nodded "Much better, she said she misses us much and can't wait to see how much we have grown." It was only a slight lie, his mother had written that she missed them but that she was also worried at how bad his transformation had been a few moons back and she was looking for an answer. Remus folded the letter again and vowed to throw it into the fireplace later once he was released.

As if she could read his mind his best friend asked him "When do you think you will be able to leave again."

Madam Pomfrey's stern voice came from behind them "When I decide that Mr. Lupin is doing better. Now please Miss Parker, let him rest a bit, he hardly slept at all last night."

Leah nodded and gave Remus hand a quick squeeze and then turned to leave.

Madam Pomfrey looked at Remus sadly. "You are aware you might not be able to hide this from your friends all your life, especially not Miss Parker. She is much too aware and attentive about you to not notice one day."

He gulped, he knew all of that but it was worse to hear it out loud. She continued "I don't believe she will abandon you if that is what you fear. She is loyal."

"I know" his voice cracked "I know she would not be the one to abandon me but I don't want her pity or the fear. I want to be normal."

"I assure you that normal is the last thing Miss Parker wants and you are normal Mr. Lupin. This does not change you as a person. Now try to sleep a few more hours and eat those chocolate muffins Miss Parker snuck in here and then you are free to leave."

As Remus returned to the Common Room four hours later he saw Leah sitting in the armchair reading a book. She looked up when she noticed him and smiled. "She finally released you huh? I am glad, I was bored." She looked him over "You feelin a bit better?"

He nodded, a lump forming in his throat and he covered it with a yawn. She frowned, stood up and took his hand "I think you need to take a nap still. And after we can go eat something, maybe even get a snack in the kitchens." He followed her as she pulled him behind him up to the boys dormitory. She pushed him on the bed and covered him with a blanket, closed the blinds and then crawled into bed with him. He did not refuse, having found out long ago that Leah was a comfort to him. Their parents had never said anything when they fell asleep together and Remus felt it was easier to breathe and live the next day. She looped an arm around him and started humming something, Remus noticed the tune, it was a song her mother used to sing before the incident. She would always sing it to them when they couldn't sleep and even though he did not want to go to sleep, he drifted off.

A few hours later he awoke to Leah moving back on the bed "What time is it?"

"A little after 6 PM. But don't worry, I want you to rest."

He pushed himself up "No I am fine, I feel a lot better" and it was true, he felt like someone who just got over a bad cough and could breathe better now "Just a bit hungry but we missed dinner."

"Then let's head to the Kitchens, we can cook something."

"But the House Elves are working probably on cleaning the dishes, we should not disturb them."

"That is why I said we should cook something." Leah smirked. Remus felt a smile growing and followed her towards the kitchens. The castle was empty because everybody was still in the Great Hall and it felt like they had the whole castle to themselves. They tickled the pear and entered.

"Hello Miss Parker and Mr. Lupin how can we help you."

"Hello, we were wondering if we would be able to cook something. Nothing too big just for the two of us."

"Certainly Miss, please follow me. Which ingredients will you need?"

Remus smiled "Just some butter, noodles, tomato sauce, tuna and peas and some spices."

"They will be brought over immediately."

"Thank you very much."

They grinned at each other and Leah started warming up the water for the noodles and cutting up some garlic and washing the peas while Remus was starting on the sauce. This was a dish Mrs. Parker had taught the two of them once they were bored and it had turned into a comfort food for both. Once the noodles were boiling and Remus had the sauce the way they wanted they added the peas and tuna and grinned at each other once the smell was just right. They got two plates from a grinning House Elf and started serving the dishes.

Leah moaned when she took her first bite "Mhh, this is amazing. I think we have outdone ourselves again. Do you like it?"

Remus, whose senses were still on a high felt all the different spices they had put in there and could also sense Leah's excitement. Very early on had he found out that he was able to detect emotions shortly before and after the Full Moon, and Leah had never expressed pity, worry maybe, which was hard to decipher before but easier now. He smiled at her "I think we have. This is better than anything they could have served us in the Great Hall today." She beamed at him and turned to a House Elf "Is there any dessert left from upstairs?"

"Yes Miss, we can bring something." He shuffled away and returned with four more House Elves and laid out plates with different desserts, the two kids dug in and thanked them profusely.

"Mate how you doin? You look better."

"I am doing a lot better, thanks guys."

Peter squeaked "You missed dinner. We should have thought about bringing you something. We are sorry Remus."

"it is alright Peter, I ate something in the Hospital Wing. I see you are continuing with our prank, what can I do to help?"

James and Sirius grinned "We need someone to get us 10 Puffapods. And you are stealthy mate, so you and Sirius can go and procure them for us. Also we need something from Slughorn, a few more ingredients and then we think it needs to sit for a week, so we are perfectly on time."

"Great, Slughorn should not be a problem, especially if we can involve Leah and the Greenhouse might be problematic but we have never failed before. Let's plan."

"I love your optimism mate, I agree, let's do this, we only have 2 weeks left." Sirius grinned and clapped Remus on the back. Remus smiled to himself, never having had any real guy friends, except for Leah's brother but he was older and did not count really. James interrupted his thoughts once more "Where does Sprout keep the Puffapods?"

Remus cleared his throat "Since they are not dangerous or really valuable they just stand around at the sides of Greenhouse 1 and 5. It should not be that hard just we can't be seen and they have a smell to it and of course we are going to need quite a few and we can't put them in our bags once again because of the smell."

"Alright I will figure something out. But you and Leah can easily go to Slughorn and just make him start talking and he won't stop."

"I agree."

Peter looked up "What will I do?"

"You need to also get some stuff and we need you stirring at all times. Some of these things can be found during Potion classes and out on the grounds. Hagrids plant garden has two of the things we need." Sirius handed Peter a small list "Make it unsuspicious. Quietly and don't draw attention to yourself."

"Lily what are you studying now?" Leah plopped down on Lily's bed and took her book "No Lily, no more History no more Charms no more Potions. We are done for this year, we get to have fun now. Let's do something. Anything just us girls."

Caitlin smiled and put down her quill "Emma is with that Hufflepuff boy again so we are missing one."

"Fine, then just the three of us. Suggest something Lil."

Lily thought for a moment and remembered some movies she used to watch with her sister. "What about a pillow fight?"

"A what?" Leah asked while Cait squealed excitedly.

"It is easy Leah, you just need to take a pillow" Lily took a pillow off her bed "go towards somebody" she walked closer to Leah "and then" she smacked the pillow on Leah and Caitlin immediately joined. Leah understood and grabbed her own pillow and started throwing it around. The girls were squealing and laughing so hard, their pillows broke open and feathers flew around everywhere.  
"That was so amazing. But how are we going to clean up all these feathers?"

Lily said "That is easy" she pulled out her wand and pointed at each pillow "Reparo!" All the feathers flew back into their designed pillows and they were sown shut again.

"Wicked Lily, really wicked."

Lily grinned and spoke a wish of hers "We should have a sleepover during the summer."

Leah looked confused again "Is that a Muggle thing too? Please explain."

"A sleepover is when friends meet, mostly girls, and sleep in the same room, eat sweets, braid hair, pillowfight and watch movies and do fun things in their pajamas."

"But don't we do that here too?"

"Yes but it is different somehow."

Leah shrugged "I am up for anything. Let's do it but what is a movie?"

Caitlin answered "Isn't it like moving pictures, but they talk and it shows like stuff happening."

"Yes in a way, it is like a theater just smaller."

"Oh okay, well then I guess we will be doing the sleepover at your house."

Emma walked in "What are we doing at whose house?"

Lily smiled "A sleepover in my house during the summer."

"Cool, I heard about those once. I will be there."

"We need your assistance" Remus whispered into Leah's ear during breakfast, she was about to turn when he continued "Don't react, just go back upstairs to the Common Room in 10 minutes to get a book you left."

Leah reacted immediately "What? No Remus, you can't distract me from tomorrow. I will beat you this time and no matter what you say I will not be distracted." She flipped her hair and turned back to the girls while muttering "Thinks he can distract me with lies."

Lily asked "What did he say?"

"He said he apparently got a letter from my mom saying she got me a small pet dragon, which is something I always wanted, but she would only give it to me if I had good grades and he knew how I struggled with History of Magic. All lies!"

The mail arrived and James received a large package and a letter, which he opened and then jumped up and left, followed by the three boys. "Weird." Emma said. After 10 minutes Leah checked her bag and excused herself saying she forgot her Charms book. She walked swiftly up the steps and entered the empty Common Room and ascended the stairs to the boys dormitory. She knocked twice and Remus opened the door. "So what is it that you need from me?" She looked over to James who was sitting there shocked "Everything okay James?"

He nodded and got up and showed her what he was holding.

"A cloak? That has you all wound up? I mean it is a nice cloak but you have tons so.." she stopped once he put it around him and half his body vanished. "No way! An Invisibility Cloak? Wicked! They are so rare and expensieve."

"James folded the cloak and said "It is my dad's. He said he used it here for some pranks with your mom." Leah saw Remus quickly look at her and then away, something was up with him. "He gave it to me now."

"Wicked, your pranks will be so much better now."

Sirius stood and put an arm around her shoulder "Speaking about pranks, we need you and Remus to get us some things from Slughorn."

"Will I have to poison him again?"

He laughed "Not this time, you will feign to have to use the toilet while Remus speaks you cast a Silencing Charm on you and sneak some things from his special trunk."

"What makes you think I know the Silencing Charm? That was not in our curriculum this year."

He looked at her knowingly and she smirked "Alright fine I will do it. But I want to know what you are doing."

Peter shook his head "No way, it is a se-secret."

"Fine, then I want a turn with the Cloak. You know family right and all that. What do you say James?"

He smiled "Of course, we will need your help many times more."

"Great. When do we start."

Two days later Lily was wondering where her best friend had run off to, she was with Remus playing chess and then they said they had to bring something to Slughorn and had been gone for over two hours now. She was about to look into the boys dormitory when the door finally opened and Leah stumbled in. "That man can talk." She flopped on her bed.

"Did everything go okay?"

"Yes Lil, why you ask?"

"You were there a long time."

"Oh he loves to tell stories. Can you imagine what he would do if he had nobody to talk to? He would probably die."

Lily laughed and looked at her open trunk, they only had 9 days left here and it was starting to get to her how little time they had left. On Monday they would be receiving their marks and get their summer homework. She felt sad. Only one week left of school and then their first year would be over.

"Do you think we need to wear the pointy hats again for the End of Term dinner?"

"Most likely Emma, why?"

"They look horrible." The girls laughed. Lily started to pack some of her clothes, and owl tapped on their window and Leah groaned when she read the letter "Remus wants a rematch" she said without missing a beat "I will never be able to pack."

Lily watched her go and wondered what her family would say when she came back. Would they try to understand everything she did or just nod politely. What would Petunia do?

"What is it now you guys? Where are Remus and Sirus?"

"Leah I need your help. I can't do two mixings at the same time and Peter is too nervous."

She groaned again, sat down and started to mix the ingredients from the book in front of her while James was doing the same from a different book. "So will this be the big prank or the fish one?"

Peter looked up shocked "Ho- how did you kno- know about that?"

"I overheard you guys once. I have a really good ears. So which is it?"

"We kinda ran out of time, so this is the big one. The Fish one we couldn't do properly because we still haven't found the kitchens. I wish Ryan would just show us... we also need to get this potion into…" Peter interrupted him "James no."

Leah rolled her eyes "Don't worry. I might be able to talk to Ryan. Ah there you guys are." The two other boys had just walked in. They opened a bag and a smell wafted out of them. "What is that?"

"Puffapods, princess. 10 of them."

"That is disgusting. Can I go now? Since the guys are back and Peter is soo scared to tell me anything about the prank, I would really like to start packing." They waved her off and she walked back out. Ryan was in the Common Room with his friends.

"Dearest brother of mine, could I talk to you for a moment?" He grinned at her and they walked towards a little quiet nook. "What can I do for you?"

"The boys need your help." He looked confused "They want to do this big prank at the end of the term and they need to know where the kitchens are. Now I promised I would not tell and I didn't but I think it would mean the world to them if you could show them before the last dinner here."

He was silent for a moment "I will think about it. Are you okay?"

"Yes, just great. You?"

He shrugged "I am going to miss this place." She hugged him and left.

It was the last day here at Hogwarts and everybody was seated in the Great Hall. Dumbledore rose "Today marks the ending of another exciting year here at Hogwarts. We have made great memories here and have had a lot of fun. Now we must say goodbye, some maybe even forever. Many of you get to come back next year but for some it is their last day here. To them I wish good luck and great fortune that you will find your own way and make the most of it. To the rest of you, we will welcome you back in September. Now on to the points of this year: In fourth place Ravenclaw with 390 points, third Slytherin with 395 points, Second with 420 points…. Hufflepuff" the Gryffindors shouted "And in First Place Gryffindor with 480 points. Congratulations! Now let the feast begin." He clapped his hands and dishes appeared.

Leah kicked Remus under the table "Did everything work? Did Ryan show you the kitchens?"

He shook his head "He said he wanted to show us after dinner."

"What about the… you know.."

"He took it and said he would take care of it. Wanted to partake in one last prank he said." She nodded.

Ryan came up behind them shortly after the main course started "Every year the pudding is a little flat because it is the last thing they make and so the other things are much better. So maybe don't eat the pudding." He winks at Leah and moved back again. Lily looked over "That was weird. I liked the pudding here always."

Leah answered immediately "I heard my sister say for the end they make these awesome one time cakes and the pudding is kinda a last minute thing. I say we follow Ryan's advice." She looked over at Remus and the other three guys and they were grinning. "I wonder how it will look." Sirius wondered. He did not have to wait too long, after the desserts were brought up. Leah hadn't lied when she had told the others about the infamous cakes and they were so good. The 4 boys were looking around at people who were eating the pudding and up to Ryan who was also grinning. Nothing happened. James started to look down when suddenly Professor McGonagall let out a small shriek. Dumbledore had red bubbles coming out of his mouth every time he wanted to say something. Some students started laughing but then saw that they also had bubbles coming out of their mouths. The pranksters were laughing so hard and even Lily started to laugh. McGonagall started "Whoever did this, must think this is- " she couldn't finish her sentence because she also started producing bubbles. Everyone was laughing and there were so many bubbles. Dumbledore put his wand to his mouth and the bubbles stopped, he stood and announced "Whoever did this please rise so we can see who came up with such a clever idea. I promise you no punishment will be put upon you" McGonagall wanted to protest but bubbles "since this is the last day and what a way to end this year." The 4 Gryffindors stood and waved at Ryan to stand as well. "Of course, and Congratulations on a fun prank. Hogwarts will miss you Mr. Parker but it seems you have found your successors. Am I right in assuming that maybe even someone of your own family was involved?"

James waved at Leah and she stood "Guilty professor."

"If I could add more points I would but alas, you will need to find reward in the applause and laughter."

James answered "Good enough for us."

McGonagall had finally used a spell to get rid of the bubbles "I assume this is also not permanent."

Sirius grinned "No, ma'am. Only 15 minutes."

"Alright. You may sit again."

Everyone was still laughing and the Great Hall was swarming with bubbles. Remus turned to his friends "Next time we need to find a way to not have a spell erase it."

"Brilliant mate."

"Well girls. Our first year is officially over" Emma exclaimed as the train neared Kings Cross.

Lily smiled "It was a great one. I will write all of you and see you soon."

Leah grinned "Obviously, we are inseparable now. Nothing can tear us apart."

"I am so glad I found you girls. You truly are the best friends I could have hoped for" Caitlin said and they all took each other's hands!

 **Finally the first year is over and now that I know approximately how long I need for a year I can't wait to delve further into the story. I hope you all liked it and I would love some feedback. The story will go deeper and more stuff is going to happen but they are 11 so let them have a great schoolyear.**


	21. Chapter 21

It was August now and Lily had not heard from many of her friends. Caitlin had written that she was with her family in Spain and she knew from Emma and Leah that they were gone for a while but no letters had reached her. Mostly she had been spending her summer with her parents. It was nice of course and she enjoyed being around them again but Petunia was constantly in her room or gone with friends, like she could not bear the thought of being in the same room as Lily. It made her anxious and lonely. She even thought about writing to one of the boys but then realized she did not know them too well and also didn't know if it was appreciated from her.

"Lily dear, would you like to go to the market with me?" her mother's soothing voice called.

She didn't have to think about that, seeing as it was either the market or staying at home alone. She pulled on her summer- jacket, blue with small butterflies on it, and made her way to her mom's car.

"Are you alright sweetie?" her mother asked, looking worried and touching Lily's hand.

"Mh, I just don't understand why no one has written yet."

"Oh sweetie, maybe they are just not back yet. They also haven't seen their families in a while and I am sorry we could not go on a trip this summer. We just planned around it."

"It's alright, mom. I guess you are right, I should stop worrying about it. Can we get some more ice creams? Dad ate the last one."

"Of course, maybe even tomorrow or so you and I can go shopping for some new clothes for your next year."

"That sounds like fun." And that is how it happened that Lily was standing in front of an array of dresses in a department store, looking for some she could bring to Hogwarts. She hadn't told her parents yet but she wanted to spend one Christmas at Hogwarts and this year would be it.

"Oh my goodness, Lily is that you?" she turned, looking for the voice and saw Lacey, Tamara and Katja standing there with their mothers.

"Oh hi."

One mother looked at her, most likely Katja's mother, "Lily, we haven't seen you in a year. Where have you been?" Her daughter continued "There has been some rumors. People saying you had to go somewhere because you were too much to handle."

Rose Evans came through the lines, holding a gold and a red sweater and started saying "Lily, these would go perfect for your uniform and I found this skirt which has large pockets for your wa- oh hello Liliana, Missy, Lisa. I didn't see you there. How are you?"

"We are well, Rose. We didn't know Lily was back. We hardly knew she was gone."

Rose gulped and Lily felt herself going white "Yes, she has been back for a few weeks. It has been great."

Tamara sneered "Did you have to go to a mental institution?"

"No." Lily said quietly.

Lacey exclaimed "Are you coming back to school? You missed a lot. There would be so much you would need to get used to."

"No I am not coming back. I go somewhere else."

"There is no other school close by with uniforms."

"Uniforms?"

"Your mother" Lisa, the mother of Katja, said "said something about these sweaters working with your uniform. I know all the schools in a one hour drive radius, even if they do have uniforms none of them are gold and red."

"The school isn't here. It is in … Scotland" her voice went up a bit.

"Are you certain? You did not sound so convinced."

"Yes Lacey I am certain. My school is in Scotland."

While Lacey tried to open her mouth a scream and a "Lily" was heard. Lily turned and saw Leah, who looked very tan and taller, running towards her with Remus behind her. "Oh finally. I thought we would never find you in this place."

"Leah? Remus? What? How are you here?"

Remus smiled "We got back yesterday and Leah didn't want to send an-" he saw the Muggles "ehm, send a message and just wanted to surprise you, but then you weren't at home but your father told us your mother and you were here."

Leah rolled her eyes "Yes, bla bla, let me hug my best friend." She flung her arms around Lily and hugged her tightly. "I missed you so much. It was so weird not waking up in a room with you and the others the first week. AH I can't wait for our dorm again. We need to do some more decorating. I have to tell you so much. Ryan is going to start his training soon and Michelle is anxious to get her results back, she has been bugging me so much and I wanted to invite you to our Garden Party but so much was happening and- "

Remus put a hand on her shoulder "Take a breath, bug." Leah did as instructed "Oh where are my manners, Hello Mrs. Evans. So nice to see you again. You are of course also warmly invited."

Lily's heart was beating so fast. Her friends had not forgotten her. "What about Emma and Caitlin, I did not hear from them all summer."

"Yes, me too. I only saw Caitlin in the Maldives' as well, which was a surprise for her mother and she told me Emma was brought to Romania, just for the summer but she will be back shortly before our letters will arrive."

Lacey's voice rang through again "Dorms? Lily are you attending a boarding school?"

She took a deep breath "Yes I am."

"And these are your friends?" Lily heard Tamara and Katja snicker and murmur "Why would somebody want to be friends with Lily."

Leah grinned her award- winning smile "Yes hello I am Leah Parker, nice to meet you." She turned back to Lily "I am so sorry but we need to run again, mom didn't even want us to come but I told her I needed to bring you your gift, which, I now realize, left at home. Okay, No worries, an invitation should arrive at your house soon anyway and we can talk again. It is somewhere else this time but you and the others are more than welcome to spend the night or a few with us at the Mansion. I would like that anyway. Oh and of course we need to go school- shopping together soon. Alright we need to go. Love you Lil. Bye Mrs. Evans." She grabbed Remus hand, he waved and they were walking off again.

"I forgot how hectic and eccentric she can be." Lily smiled.

"She is a dear." They turned again and the three girls and their mothers were still standing there. Lily's mother took an initiative "Well alright, we must be off then if we still want to find a nice outfit for the Garden party. Good day to you." She grabbed Lily's hand and turned her around.

"Thank you mom."

Lily walked out of the Floo- Portal into bright sunlight, grass so green it looked fake, the smell of fruits and cakes everywhere and so many witches and wizards in bright robes, laughing and dancing. Lily spotted Caitlin, also tanned and wearing a pink dress. "Caitlin I missed you." Caitlin beamed and hugged her. "Isn't this incredible? Everything is so bright."

Thomas Evans voiced the question they all had "But why not in their own house, they have a huge garden from what I could tell last time."

A voice answered them "Because this is not a social and private event but an event for the Ministry and families. It is nice that you all could come" the voice belonged to none other than the oldest Parker child Ryan. "Hello Lily, Caitlin. How is your first summer after Hogwarts?"

"Different."

"I imagine, let me bring you to the others."

Caitlin asked "Ryan how were your N.E.W.T.S?"

"Really good, thank you. I start my training next week. I had an introduction a few days ago and I think I will really like it."

Rose asked "What is your training for?"

"I want to be a healer at St. Mungos Hospital."

"That is impressive. I bet your parents are very proud of you." He only smiled at that.

Lily followed with another question "Has Michelle then gotten her O.W.L. results back as well?"

"Not yet, but they should arrive any day now. NEWT results are the first ones to be sent out, only a few weeks after the last day due to deadlines on applications and job interviews. She is excited though. Here we are. Leah is right there as well as my parents. Please make yourself comfortable, I will excuse myself, I just saw the Head of the Department of International Magical Affairs arrive, I better go greet them."

The red haired girl looked over and saw Leah next to her sisters, all of them in white dresses and a flower crown on each head. Her mother was talking to a young man and her father was talking to somebody who looked vaguely familiar. They stood in line to greet them and when it was their turn Mrs. Parker smiled and told them to please make themselves comfortable and once Lily and Caitlin turned to greet Leah she hugged them both tightly and pointed them to a table close by, saying she would be there as soon as she greeted the rest of the line. She was looking around the room and spotted someone who looked so familiar "Oh my goodness, is that Professor Dumbledore and McGonagall?"

Caitlin looked around so fast her neck gave a little pop "Oh by Gryffindors underpants, I can't believe it. And there is Slughorn!" she pointed a little further back behind Dumbledore. Leah came up behind them "I was able to get away, I said I was looking for Ashley, who ran off with Jenny somewhere."

Caitlin smiled "James is here?"

"Yes, of course. So is Remus. Peter said he was hoping to make it but they are in Ireland."

"Is Dumbledore really here?"

"Yes, he works closely with my dad." She shouted "Professor, hello!"

"Leah stop! Don't embarrass him." Leah just rolled her eyes and waved. The three professors moved closer to them "Hello you three. I was assuming that you would be here and I was right and very happy about that. Have you had a nice summer?"

The three nodded and Leah asked "Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Yes we are." Dumbledore said "As always. And be prepared the letters will be send out soon."

Lily was astonished, she was sitting beside her parents, waiting on the second course. Everything was so big and grand and she never would have experienced that if she had not gone to Hogwarts. She was only wondering where Severus was, if this was a Ministry event, wouldn't his mother be here also? "What are you thinking about Lil?" Caitlin asked beside her.

"Where Severus is. His mother works at the Ministry, Eileen Snape." A man looked over and asked her "The Snape family has never attended one of the Ministers functions, not in years. Not since her marriage I believe."

She wondered "Their son, has told me that his mother was never invited. Because of his father who is a Muggle."

The man shook his head dramatically "Not since Minister Parker has been in the office has there been any discrimination because of partners who were Muggles, even before that it did not happen too often. I don't know about before the Minister but every employee of the Ministry gets an invite. Of course this is always a challenging day due to vacation of the children and the summer, so most only attend the Ministry Ball in September, before school starts again and the other functions actually at the Ministry but there has never been a person who did not get an invite. This child must be mistaken."

Lily looked sullen, she did not know who to believe. She didn't want to imagine Severus lying to her but she also didn't understand why he would lie to her. She had never been dishonest with him.

A while later everyone was mingling again and the Minister was beside her suddenly. "Good day Minister, thank you again so much for the invitation."

"Oh please Lily, I beg you call me Richard. You are a friend of my daughters, none of this official Minister protocol."

She smiled but knew she was not going to start calling him Richard anytime soon, he smiled knowingly as if he suspected the same.

"I actually wanted to speak to you. I heard that you were wondering why the Snape family is not here and I don't want you to believe that I would discriminate somebody based on their blood and who they marry. I have always invited every person and I will keep doing so."

Lily felt ashamed, having questioned the Minister "Please forgive me, Minister, I know you would not discriminate, else I would not be here. I was just wondering and my friend Severus had told me that his family had never been invited so I was curious."

"There is nothing to forgive Lily. Everyone deserves to be curious and ask questions. I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening here." Lily felt horrible, like a big rock had been pushed into her throat and she felt the tears coming to her eyes, therefore she ran towards a small alcove to hide for a minute. But somebody came by and she tried to cover her face but the person noticed her "Lily is everything alright?" the soft and soothing voice of Remus came from behind her. "Yes I am fine." He stepped closer and touched her arm "I can tell that it is not. What's wrong?" She finally caved "I just embarrassed myself in front of the Minister of Magic. I was questioning why Severus is not here and he explained it and now I feel dreadful." Remus comforted her.

"He is not a judgmental person, Lily. He will not make you feel bad about it. Trust me. He has always been kind." Remus was speaking from his own experience. Besides his parents, Dumbledore, McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey the only people who knew about his condition were the Minister and Mrs. Parker. His parents had felt it necessary to tell them, based on the fact that he was friends with their daughter and his father worked in the Ministry. They had been kind and understanding and had never treated him differently. Even when the Full Moon was coming close and his behavior changed a bit and the only thing to make him feel better would be to spend time with Leah, they had never frowned or batted an eyelash. They were, as the Parker children would put it, the most awesomest parents in the world.  
Lily dried her tears and looked out to where the party was going on. "Do you think they noticed I was gone?"

"Probably not. Last I saw Leah was talking to James who had just arrived and your parents are talking to mine. Come on, we will get something to drink and join the others again." Lily nodded and grabbed onto his arm, which he had held out to her.

"Lil, I was wondering if you are staying the night? I will head back to the Manor in a few hours." Leah asked, pulling her aside.

"Oh, I don't know Leah. I forgot about it."

"That's cool. Maybe you can stop by in a few days for a sleep- over? Cait can't come tonight cause her dad has his birthday tomorrow and James is confiscating Remus because they haven't heard from Sirius in a while. I guess I will just bond with my siblings then."

"I am sorry Leah. I will definitely come over soon and we can have a big sleepover. I never got to see the rest of the house."

Leah squealed and hugged me "Just send me an owl for when and I will have everything ready. Caitlin you are coming too. I need some girl time." Caitlin agreed eagerly, saying she would love to. Remus suddenly started grinning viciously and he poked Leah in her side.

"What?"

"Look over there."

"Where?"

He turned her head into the right direction and she started laughing "Oh I wish I had my camera with me. This truly is a great moment to document and use for later times." Lily did not understand what was happening and asked what was going on. Leah explained "Look over there behind the cake table. You see my sister there, right? Well the guy beside her, is Brody. She has had a crush on him for the last two years and this is the first time he has come to one of the Ministry's events. Oh by Merlin look, he just took her hand. She is blushing." She was snickering now. Once again Lily wondered what it would be like to have that kind of relationship back with her sister. She missed her at times and also wanted to talk about boys and clothes and all that, in which Lily was not yet truly interested. But Petunia was, she heard her talking on the phone about a guy she liked. She wanted to be the person Petunia talked to about things like that. Like real sisters would. She was pulled out of her thoughts by a loud laughing; Leah and Remus were holding their sides, laughing, while Michelle and Brody walked away, both red- faced but still holding hands.

"What happened?"

"She wanted to lean against the table or something and her hand landed directly in the pie and she was so shocked she like stepped on his shoe and he like tumbled lightly and crashed his arm into a different cake. This was awesome." Lily looked after Michelle and saw her turning towards the Washing Tents and she felt a bit bad about feeling amused but Michelle was smiling.

Lily and her parents were standing close to the portal to leave again and Leah was hugging her best friend tightly "Be sure to write so I know when you want to come over and then I will also give you your present. Have a great night still!" Lily smiled and stepped through the portal, wondering if their next year would be just as great.


	22. Chapter 22

**Hello everyone! I am so sorry it took me so long to update but I am back and with a plan to really pump out new chapters regularly again. We had some family drama and university was difficult but I hope you enjoy this new chapter!**

Remus was in a lot of pain. His first transformation back home was worse than he expected. He was never locked up in a place like the Shrieking Shack at home, where there was a slight breeze coming in and the smell of woods calmed him. Also him being so far away from people calmed him. Now he was back in a storm- cellar underneath his house, no air, only a small window and too close to people, especially his parents. It was rough and he bit himself so many times. He bruised himself so much, his mom had been applying ointments and had given him many different potions he had lost count. His head wasn't throbbing anymore, his leg wasn't as swollen and the bruised were almost all gone. His mom looked in "How are you honey? Can I get you anything? Should I make some chocolate cake? Maybe brownies? You love brownies."

He nodded softly "That'd be great. Thanks mom."

She came closer and rubbed his arm "I wish I could help you."

"You are."

"No, I mean, I wish I could take this from you. I wish you did not have to live with this. If there was a way we could trade I would do it immediately."

He shot up, making his head throb "No mom. I wouldn't want that. And you are doing more than enough. You kept me. I will never be able to thank you for that."

His mom's eyes widened "Honey, why would you say that? There was never a question of if we were to keep you. We love you and none of this is your fault. Now rest and I will make some brownies." She kissed him and left, wondering how he would even get that idea. Her husband was sitting at the table, looking through a report "Lyall, Remus just thanked me for keeping him after he was attacked."

He was aghast "How could he even say that. We would have never." He sighed, pushing off his glasses "I wish I would have just kept my mouth shut. If I had just shut up none of this would have happened." Hope just sighed and continued to stir the ingredients, knowing full well she could not talk her husband out of this and in some ways, it was true. Lyall Lupin sighed one more time deeply and then returned to his report. The fireplace lit up green and the small bell tolled to signal some-one coming over and Leah stepped out of the fireplace. "Hi Hope, hi Lyall. How is Remus? Is his migraine over?"

Hope smiled "Hello dear, he is doing a bit better but not yet up for anything strenuous. I am just making him some brownies. They will be done in 30 minutes. Will you still be there by then?"

"If he wants me to. Mom also gave me this to give to you." She handed over a container "Did Remus already get his supply list? I got mine just a few minutes ago."

"No not yet. It will probably arrive any minute now. He is upstairs in his room."

"Alright." As Leah left for upstairs Hope looked into the container and seeing a few small pills and a cream for Remus. Arielle Parker knew about the rough Full Moon night and sent over something to immediately help Remus. She had access to things Hope could not even think of and she was so grateful to have a best friend who did not judge.

"Oh Remy, how are you? Can I do anything?" Leah's calming voice pulled him out of his thoughts and he smiled.

"Hey, you didn't have to come. I am a lot better and I think the brownies will really help."

"I understand. I had the worst migraine last night, I was throwing up and I think I blacked out at some point. I got my letter today for the supplies but I heard yours did not come yet."

Remus just shrugged and moved over into his bed, making room for her. Leah grinned and shrugged off her cardigan and shoes and climbed into it. The sandy- haired boy sighed as Leah's weight settled against it and her smell started to surround him, the sweet- fruity smell that always accompanied her, calming him in a way he was grateful for. Leah started humming, brushing away a strand of hair, a tune he remembered fondly. A song once sung to the two of them by her mother a long time ago. They had often speculated if her mother would ever sing again but for the last 6 years nobody has heard her sing. The songs still stuck and with her humming Remus slowly drifted off to sleep, feeling calmer than he had since leaving Hogwarts.

A calm serenity was surrounding Lily, while sitting in the living room with her parents and even her sister. Her sister had not been speaking to her but she tolerated Lily around her now and did not sneer at her. Lily sometimes wished it could stay like this forever. But nothing in her life seemed as easy and normal as that; a small chime sounded and the fireplace lit up in green flames. Petunia shrieked "What?" and suddenly a small letter came out. Lily jumped up to catch it. It was a scribbled note from Leah:

Hello Lily,

Remus just got his letter. I wrote the others too, let's meet in Diagon Alley on Saturday at 11 o'clock at the Apothecary or maybe Gringotts. You choose; write back with an answer as fast as you can.. Can't wait.

Leah

Lily smiled, having gotten her letter yesterday; she wanted to go to DIagon Alley immediately to start buying her new things but she wanted to do this with her friends as well. She grabbed a paper and a pen and scribbling an answer.

Hi Leah,

The Apothecary sounds fine, I don't need to pick up any money at the moment, I already got some a few weeks ago. See you Saturday

Lily

She threw the paper in the fire and said "Parker Mansion" and then the flames died down. "Mom, on Saturday can we go to Diagon Alley, I will need my school supplies and I am going to meet the others there. I think they might even bring their parents." Rose looked at Thomas and then nodded "Yes of course, we can go. There was that pub, right? Where the adults could go and talk if you wanted to go on alone." Lily nodded eagerly and returned to her book, but not really able to read anything due to her excitement.

"Come on, we are already late."

"I am sorry Lily I didn't know parking was going to be so difficult." Lily just rolled her eyes at her father but grinned as they stepped to the Wall. She pulled out her wand and tapped the correct stones and it opened. She immediately saw her friends; Caitlin, Emma, Leah, Remus, James and even Sirius, waiting for her at the Apothecary. She ran over and the girls hugged her and the boys waved. Arielle Parker was also there with Hope Lupin, Mrs. Potter and the father of Emma. Lily's parents joined them and waved the kids goodbye, telling them to be back in 3 hours.

Emma snickered as she saw James and Sirius drooling over some Quidditch supplies whereas then Leah took the initiative "Guys we can come back later! Let's first get the stuff we need and then we can look at Quidditch supplies."

Caitlin added "Maybe we should start all the way in the back, to get the books and whatever anyone needs for their pets."

Lily nodded "Good idea." The group made their way to the back of the Alley and entered the bookstore. Lily sighed. She had always loved books. Leah nudged her "This is the best feeling, isn't it? Books always make me feel at home."

"I know exactly what you mean." After collecting the books for her second year Lily added three more books to her list. Caitlin had recommended a book about magical history which they would not cover during History of Magic and Lily had been eager to get her hands on it. After books they headed towards Madam Malkins, where the boys just rolled their eyes at Emma and Leah giggling about new robes and some dresses they thought were just too adorable. Remus nudged Leah "You know we still need to go to the Apothecary and the Joke Shop." She nodded and hushed him away "A few more minutes. I just need to be fitted real quick for the Ministry Ball."

Madam Malkins came back out with one assistant and helped Leah on the stool. "Now Miss Parker, your mother said you wanted a purple dress this time. Something simple."

"Correct" she looked at some of the fabrics and chose a lilac one "This will work perfectly for the end of the summer. Maybe we can add some flowers?" Madam Malkins nodded and shuffled around her, made notes and measured her. At the end she showed Leah a sketch, which was approved and the group of Gryffindors left.

At the intersection going to Knockturn Alley a voice came up from behind them "Well, well, well, what do we have here? Sirius you know your mother will not be happy when she hears you are with those Half- Bloods and Bloodtraitors. She will be disappointed."

A woman, came up, somebody Lily thought she had seen somewhere before but she could not pinpoint it. She was beautiful in an elegant and dangerous way. But there was a glint in her eye that did not sit well with Lily. Sirius paled lightly but then straightened up "Go away Bella!"

She laughed "Oh Sirius, you really think you can talk to me that way. Cissy has been telling me all about how you were sorted into Gryffindor. What a shame you brought on the family. And now you are here with these" she paused to look them all up and down "Mudbloods and traitors with tainted blood." Sirius clenched his knuckles and said and started yelling at the same time as Leah "Shut up!" Bellatrix eyes moved to Leah and she grinned "Ah Sirius, maybe you do still hold some potential. Maybe we should invite you to my wedding, if you comply of course."

"I would not want to be caught dead at your stupid wedding and I will never comply to anything you or my mother want me to do."

One last look at Leah and then she turned back to Sirius "We will see. Cissy, come on. We still need to get your new robes." A tall blonde girl, with the same elegance but more of a grace around her came up behind the dark haired woman. The older one said "You should congratulate your cousin Sirius, it seems Lucius will want to propose soon now. Our family is growing stronger, you should choose the right side to stay on."

He just smirked "Trust me I will, I will stay right here with Andy." The dark- haired woman's face turned gray for a minute but then she composed herself. "We will see." She grabbed the blonde and stormed off.

Emma turned to Lily and took her hand "Are you okay?"

Lily was confused "Why would I not be okay? Who was that? Where does this go to?" Emma pulled Lily back as Lily took a step towards the dark alley. "Trust me Lil, you do not want to go there. We will explain later."

Leah stepped closer to Sirius, placing a hand on his arm "Don't listen to her. Let's go, Joke Shop is close by." Sirius nodded and then also looked at Lily "Are you sure you are okay?"

"Why do you keep asking? What happened."

He inhaled deeply "That was my cousin Bellatrix Black. You saw her sister, Narcissa, she is now in her 6th year. They believe in that whole Pureblood thing and believe the family Black is superior. And I am sorry for the word she called you."

"I am still confused. What did she call me?"

James coughed "A Mudblood" he whispered.

Lily felt that the word was dirty but did not understand it fully, so Remus explained "It is a term not used anymore. At least not under civilized company" he looked to Sirius "Sorry" He shrugged "My family is crazy but I am not appreciated anymore." Remus continued "It refers to Muggle- born witches and wizards. Purebloods believe only they deserve the right to study magic and use it and they think Muggle- borns are the worst kind and if you mix with them their blood will get tainted. It is not a nice term."

Lily felt a small lump in her throat but she asked "But she also called us Blood- traitors."

Leah added "Well not you, but us; James, Sirius and I. Half- Bloods are already, in their eyes tainted and only very few Half- Bloods are accepted in their eyes but for Purebloods, like us, to be seen and interact with Muggle- born or Halfs, it is a disgrace to them and we are just as bad. But don't listen to them Lil. They did not realize the world has evolved and nobody cares anymore."

Sirius helped by saying "It is just so much worse to them because their own Sister, my favorite cousin, Andromeda decided she did not like the differences in blood purity and she started working in Muggle London and met somebody there. A Muggle- born wizard. She was also a Slytherin and graduated two years ago. During her last year she lived with my Uncle Alphard. He was disowned by the family too."

Emma looked shocked "You are not disowned are you?"

"No they think they can still change me. I am young and impressionable."

They started walking away from the dark alley but Lily looked back once and thought she saw a boy who looked closely familiar to Severus, but she must have been imagining things. She asked a question to Sirius "How was your cousin then sorted into Slytherin?"

Sirius sighed "It is complicated. Since we were born all these traits have been pushed into our heads about how we are supposed to be and how we should act. The main things that is drilled in our head is old- fashioned traditions, the urge to strive to greatness and to do whatever it takes to get there. Ambition, cunning and resourcefulness. Sound familiar?"

"The traits of Slytherin house."

"Yeah."

Leah continued "Those traits are noble and not bad, I mean I had the same traits implanted in my brain, how important it is to strive to be your very best and never stop. I feel like many misunderstand what the houses symbolize. It is not the traits we have, but the traits we hold most dear, the ones we value the most. The fact that most wizards and witches who have gone bad were in Slytherin is just a hiccup in the system. There have also been some bad eggs in Gryffindor."

Sirius said "Also the value you hold in these traits change over time. Basically we should be re-sorted every year. But in my family there is the constant urge for ambition and of course dark magic. It just changed at once point in the past. But let's not continue talking about that. Let's get some prank- materials."

Caitlin smiled "But first, the Apothecary."

After another hour of trying to get all their supplies and a little extra, the kids met back up with their parents at the Leaky Cauldron. Rose and Thomas were fawning over the new books, Arielle and Edward were laughing over some of the new prank toys that had been produced and told stories about their own time at Hogwarts while the rest was laughing. Lily had a weird feeling still in her throat after what Bellatrix had called her but tried to play it off. Leah kept glancing at her, suddenly standing up and grabbing Lily to go to the bathroom.

"Are you sure you are okay?"

She sighed "Yes. I didn't even know what it meant so I feel like it should not shake me that much."

"But it still hurt. It is an insult and you should have never experienced that."

"I won't have to see her anymore. She isn't in Hogwarts."

Leah nodded slowly, twirling a strand of her around her finger "I hope you are right. Anyway I wanted to ask how you are getting to the Train Station in a few days."

"Oh, I guess my parents will drive again. Will I see you outside the gates?"

"No, you will see me after the barrier. We go directly there. The Ministry Ball is two days before and I know I will have to do so much packing that last day. Thank Merlin for the Extention Charm, am I right?"

Lily laughed "I can't put that on my trunk, remember? Muggle here!"

"Oh Lil, do you want my mom to put it on yours? You should have said something."

"Don't worry. I don't need that much space." Leah laughed and linked her arm in hers, she turned them to walk back to the table. Rose Evans looked up, smiled, then said "I think it is time for us to head back soon. Our oldest daughter is coming home soon and we should start on supper. It was so nice to see you all and thanks again for the invitation. I will see you September 1st."


	23. Chapter 23

**Hi everybody! I am adding in some characters here, which we all know and love. Now I did look for their real birthdates and names but for certain purposes I will change some of these! Especially the birthdates but in the end it will make sense.**

James was trying to get out of the embrace of his sister. She was holding on for dear life, standing outside of the train. "Please let me go too! I really want to go! I missed you so much when you were gone! Please James!" Annie was trying to peal her sister away from her son "Jenny honey, it is only 4 more years and then you will be able to go to Hogwarts too! And James is coming home for Christmas and Easter. He will write a lot, won't you James?"

"Yes of course, Jenny I always miss you. I will send you so many letters." He did not want to admit it but he was feeling rather sad at leaving his sister back at home. He had enjoyed his time so much with her again and she had also grown close to Sirius, who had spent more time with the Potters than with his own family. The Potter's hadn't minded though and had taken him in gladly. Jenny was sobbing quietly but let go reluctantly. Suddenly she saw somebody and grinned widely. "Sirius!" James looked around and saw his best friend. He had come through the portal alone, grinning as he saw the Potters. "Hello Potters, are you ready mate?"

"Yes I am."

Annie smiled "Hello Sirius, how have the last few days been?"

"Great Mrs. P. thanks, how are you?"

"Just fine, a little sad that my boys are leaving." Annie had welcomed Sirius in her home and her heart quickly. She had seen the sadness, the loneliness and something broken in the boy and realized he needed a home. Edward had also found a liking to the boy and was the one who had said that the house Sirius was living in was just that; a house and not a home. So they had always welcomed Sirius back and never treated him differently because of his name.

Sirius grinned sheepishly and wrapped Jenny in a tight hug "I am going to miss you, little J. Write me a letter also and I will tell you all the embarrassing things James is doing." Jenny was beaming, nodding eagerly. James just groaned, he turned and spotted Leah and her family coming in and waving towards them. They waved back and watched Leah and Michelle say goodbye and enter the train. Sirius looked around "Where are Remus and Peter?"

"I thought Remus would come with Leah but maybe he is coming alone."

"Speaking of him, there he is; Hey Remus." Sirius had yelled the last bit. Remus looked up and waved. He signaled to them that he would meet them inside. Annie Potter smiled again "I think it is time to say goodbye. You need to get on that train and I need to get Jenny back to grandmamma, I need to head to work. Sirius my boy, have a great year, please write me sometimes and know you are welcome back anytime." She hugged him and he just smiled before hugging Jenny tightly and then turning to the train, looking for Remus.  
"James, be a good boy. I will miss you so much. Try to stay out of trouble or at least don't get caught. Also to you: write often. I love you baby." She hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. James then turned to Jenny and hugged her, giving her a kiss on the head "I will write so often. I am going to miss you and I love you. I love you too mom! Have some fun without me, even though it will be hard." Jenny and Annie laughed and waved at him as he entered the train. James turned one more time, waving and smiling, trying not to show how sad he was that he was leaving his family again.

He went on to search for his friends, hoping Peter was coming soon. He passed the compartment with Leah and Emma inside it, he knocked and entered "Hello girls, I hope you had a great summer. How have you been?"

Emma and Leah smiled and hugged him "We've been great, hope you were too. If you are looking for the others they are three compartments down."

"Thanks, me too. I will see you at the Great Hall and then we can talk some more later." He winked once and walked down to the part where his friends were in; even Peter was already there. "Peter, mate, we did not see you come in. How are you?"

Peter shrugged "I came here too early, I somehow forgot that it was 11 and not earlier. I am good, and you?"

"Just fine. I am happy to be going back and I have the perfect prank for the beginning of the term."

Sirius, who had been lying around lazily, perked up "Do tell!"

"I believe we should use this potion we bought that will take the voice of someone for 15 minutes. I noticed that McGonagall always takes a sip of water before she makes an announcement and if we just slip it in shortly before she will get the First Years, she will escort them in and then take a sip and then proceed to try to read out the list of names."

"Hilarious mate! But how certain are you that she will actually take a sip?"

Remus piped up "I might have a way around that. We can change the potion into a powder and put it onto the list. Once rolled out the dust will enter he mouth and it will take her voice."

Peter nodded eagerly while James asked "How will we change the potion into a powder?"

Sirius grinned "I know how. Remus got this amazing book where it had a passage of how to do that. I believe it was very simple. A simple spell and a container with some powder should do it. Right?"

Remus nodded "I even have the book in my bag. We just need some powder."

Sirius said "I know something. You look for the spell and I will go get it. I need a container though."

Peter pulled out a small container, which was filled with a cupcake, which he then took out and handed the container to Sirius. Sirius thanked him and left. Peter bit into his cupcake and looked at the two amused faces of the others "What?"

"You couldn't wait a bit? We have a long ride, as you know." Remus laughed.

Peter shrugged "There is always the food trolley."

Sirius came back a few minutes later with a small brownish powder in the container. James grinned "Where did you get that?"

"Leah and Emma."

"What?"

"Yeah, this is makeup. I asked if they had any powdery substances, and they both nodded, then pulled out two powder blushes or something and we scraped some off with a card. I thought this would be enough."

Remus nodded, having read in the book one more time "It will. Now what we need is the potion, a few drops will be enough. We then also need some napkins for the spell and another card or something to make the dust even smaller. We put some of the potion on this powder, say the spell. It will turn clumpy but dry really fast and once it is dry it will go back to the form this powder has now. Then we crush it up a bit more and then one of us can put it on the scroll."

Peter said "That seems easy enough."

Sirius voiced a concern "What if we accidently inhale some of that powder once we put it on the scroll?"

James rolled his eyes "I hadn't even thought of that."

"Either whoever does it, covers his mouth enough or risks getting some of that powder on him and not be able to speak for 15 minutes. If we do it correctly we should not have to worry. Who will do it? Remember we need to sit back at the Gryffindor Table and won't be able to talk for 15 minutes."

James answered "Well I would do it but I already saw Emma and Leah and talked to them."

Peter quipped "So it is only Sirius, Remus or I"

Sirius snorted "Obviously I can't do it either."

"Why?"

"Really Pete? I was the one who got the powder from them. What would it look like if I suddenly couldn't talk anymore. Also they would never believe that I would not want to talk, I always talk."

"True, I came here with Leah and she would get worried, so Peter I think it will be you." Remus remarked.

He stammered "But- couldn't we- I mean- I am so clumsy- what if we just tell the girls about it. They could help- maybe?"

Sirius laughed "Pete, mate, you need to chill."

James added "We can't add Leah and Emma to all pranks, this is just ours. Also you have the easiest job in all this. It is already a miracle that they did not ask what we needed the powder for."

"True that!" Sirius laughed again. Peter looked defeated but just nodded and the four 4 boys grinned at each other and started their little prank.

Exactly thirty minutes before they arrived at the train station their powder was done. Remus, carefully and precisely, put it in a napkin, which Peter would just need to dump into the folds of the scroll while the other three distracted McGonagall. It was a foolproof plan. Everybody scrambled out onto the platform, all the First Years looking around in awe at all the people and Hagrid ushering them to the boats. The others were slowly making their way towards the carriages to head to the castle. Leah grinned at the boys as the 4 girls entered one carriage and disappeared towards Hogwarts. It really was a sight, to see Hogwarts in the evening, illuminated only by the candles burning in the windows and they could see ghosts and even some people already moving in there. It always managed to take everyone's breath away. But Peter hardly noticed. He was jittering the whole time, worried about what would happen if he wasn't able to pull of this prank. Would his friends shun him, would he be punished by McGonagall, would he be sent home? All these thoughts were running through his head. And as if James were able to read minds he nudged him and said "Stop fussing! It will all be fine! If you are less jittery then nobody will notice that we have something planned. And like we said, once we enter the Great Hall, we immediately go up to the Professors Table and talk to McGonagall and Dumbledore, blocking Peter from their view." The three boys nodded and James smiled "Let's start the year right."

Over in the other carriage Emma was talking up a storm about this guy she met in her home town and how sad he was that she would not go to the same school as he would. "I mean, how stupid is it of me to get a crush on a Muggle. I won't be able to write letters to him, obviously I can't tell him about me and I wouldn't want to wait for almost a year to start a short relationship. It would not be fair. Also did you see how cute McDonald looked on the platform?"

Lily wondered "Who was McDonald?"

"He is from Gryffindor, one year above us. But apparently he likes Alice Prewett."

Caitlin added "Prewett? Isn't that the name of that one nice girl in Gryffindor? With the red hair. Her brothers are in Gryffindor too?"

"You mean Molly? Yeah her name is also Prewett, I think if I remember correctly her father's brother is the father of Alice." Leah answered, tying her hair in a pony tail.

"In which year is she again?"

"This is her seventh year. Fabian and Gideon, her brothers are in their 6th year and Alice in her third. But we will see her in a bit. It is weird, Michelle is actually friends with her but we didn't see her that much around Michelle last year."

Emma added "Because she started dating that Arthur Weasley. You know, also red hair, loves everything about Muggles, kinda scrawny."

Lily laughed "Right, he is one year under her. Oh my goodness. But back to McDonald, why do you think he likes Alice?"

Emma sighed "I heard some of his friends teasing him about it. Oh well, there are plenty of other good- looking wizards out there."

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Black; is this really the right time to ask these questions? I am about to get our First Years and questions surrounding this year's examinations can wait until tomorrow don't you think?" McGonagall said, rather annoyed at being bombarded with questions so early in the term. Remus turned to look at Peter who was fumbling and looking around nervously. He took the initiative "Professor, with all due respect, I saw a spell that seemed far too advanced for our skill set. I wouldn't want to _screw it up_ " he stressed that word while nudging Sirius, who looked confused but then turned and groaned. Professor McGonagall looked at him "Is everything alright Mr. Black?" James looked and pushed Remus closer to Sirius and moved to Peter. McGonagall was about to look where James had gone, when Sirius groaned again, throwing his hands to his mouth for effect. Remus distracted more by saying "We told him not to eat that many pastries on the way here!" McGonagall looked worried for a moment but then James appeared again with a flushed Peter. "I think Sirius should drink some calming tea and we should really stop wasting Professor McGonagall's time. Come on guys." He ushered Sirius to the Gryffindor table. Sirius coughed a few more times for dramatic effect before glaring at Peter "What was that all about? You had the easiest part!"

Peter's eyes widened in shock and he opened his mouth and then closed it.

"Say something!"

James laughed "He can't, he was so nervous when I opened the napkin that he shook a bit an inhaled some of the powder. The rest is in the scroll."

"You didn't inhale it?"

"Remus, really? You underestimate me. I held my breath." The boys laughed and sat down opposite the 4 girls.

Lily looked up skeptically "What were you doing up there? You can't even leave them alone for a few minutes?"

"Nothing Lily, just had a question for McGonagall." Sirius grinned. Remus and James nodded but Peter was not as subtle as the others, he was nodding frantically and Lily narrowed her eyes at him.

"Are you okay Peter?"

Sirius answered calmly "He can't talk right now."

"Why not? He said hello to us earlier."

Sirius breathed in and Remus answered "He lost a bet to us, we silenced him. Don't worry, he will talk sooner than you think."

Emma laughed "What bet?"

Sirius said "We bet him he could not eat 8 pumpkin pasties. He couldn't."

Peter turned a slight shade of pink but nodded, which earned him a shoulder pat of James for playing along.

10 minutes later McGonagall went and got the First Years, all of whom were in awe and entranced by the high ceiling, the floating candles, the professors, the houses, and the people around them.

"Now, please stop here" McGonagall started, picking up the scroll "once I call your name, step forward and the Sorting Hat will tell you in which House you belong. Now let us start." Sirius, Remus, James and Peter leaned forwards as she unrolled the scroll. The powder was so thin that it could not be seen and as McGonagall took a deep breath to call out the first name Sirius and Remus high fived each other knowing, no word would come out of her mouth in a minute. She opened her mouth started to form a word and then her eyes widened. She tried to clear her throat but no sound came out. McGonagall turned to look at Dumbledore, who had an amused look on his face. She tried again but no sound came out. The students started to murmur and some were already laughing. She looked around and spotted the 4 Gryffindor boys, she narrowed her eyes at them and they had to start laughing. Dumbledore stood "I am afraid Professor McGonagall has been subject to a small prank. Now let me just fix this up for us" pulling out his wand he waved it once "now please Professor, continue. And thank you for this marvelous little prank at the beginning of the year." He winked slightly into the direction of the boys and everyone was laughing."

McGonagall cleared her throat and waited for the laughter to calm down. Leah fist- bumped Remus and Lily had her eyes narrowed on them.


	24. Chapter 24

„Thanks to the brilliant little prank pulled during the Beginning- of- Term- Feast, we will be starting this year differently than I had intended." Professor Lekaran said during her first lesson teaching the Second Years, pointedly looking at the 4 boys, who grinned widely. "If you open your Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2, you will see that the first part deals with proper wand work and how to use basic spells but if you would please flip to chapter 8, what, do tell, can you see?"

Lily's hand shot up. "Yes, Miss Evans."

"It is the General Counter- Spell, ma'am."

"Correct, can anyone tell me why I want to start with this spell today?"

Again Lily answered the question "Because this is the spell Professor Dumbledore used on Professor McGonagall yesterday."

"Very good, Miss Evans. 10 points to Gryffindor. Now let us all practice the incantation and the wand- movement."

"Bloody awesome prank yesterday boy" a 6th year Hufflepuff said as he was walking past the 4 Gryffindor boys. This had been happening since Tuesday morning, people tapping their backs, congratulating and praising them. Michelle smiled and sat down beside them "You would make Ryan so proud. I already wrote him of your prank and he said he is happy to leave his crown to you. Just to keep up the good work and get more and more creative and something about talking to the Prewetts about the 'helpful detail'; whatever that means."

Remus grinned "Thank him for us, and we will surely make him proud."

"And everyone thinks you are the quiet, reserved one here in this group. You are just as bad as them."

"Thanks Michelle." She laughed again and left.

Sirius turned to the group, closing his Charms book "Ryan is right. We need to keep up with the pranks. We need something good next."

Peter shrieked "Dungbombs!"

"No, we should keep those for later. It is only the first week, we have a lot of time. If we do too many big pranks then everyone will be disappointed when some of them aren't as good." James declared.

Writing the last sentence, Remus mumbled "I wonder what the Prewetts' will know." As if summoned the two brothers showed up and Gideon started "I heard our name. Here we are!"

Fabian continued "Good job with the prank anyway, solid job for a Second Year during the first day."

The 4 boys grinned, enjoying the praise from the two pranksters.

"Ryan has just wrote us, telling us that we should give you some good information and something helpful for your future pranks. Somebody needs to continue the legacy."

James felt validated, knowing this was supposed to be his legacy, to be remembered as a prankster in Hogwarts. "When can we start?"

Fabian laughed "Soon, my little friends, it is early; we still have enough time. Keep up the good work though. Give us something small now." They grinned one more time and left, leaving the mischievous boys to their own thoughts.

On the other side of the castle, at the lake the girls were hanging their legs into the water enjoying the last few rays of sunshine before fall hit them completely.

Emma sighed, leaning back "This is probably what rich and successful people feel like every day."

"Why don't you just ask Leah?" Caitlin laughed, to which everybody started laughing not expecting the sweet girl to say something like that.

Leah was still laughing when she said "Oh Cait, so shady. I better put on my sunglasses if you keep throwing that much shade. But yes life really does feel like this every day."

Lily looked over at the castle, marveling at the sun glistening off the windows, seeing all the people walking around, and the first few people heading towards the Quidditch pitch.

"Will you be going to see the Quidditch try outs again this year."

Leah sat up "Of course, our own Jamie is going to try out! I need to see it all, to see how often he falls."

"Didn't Sirius also want to try out?" Emma asked, braiding her hair.

"I think so but I don't think he will, not yet anyway." Leah leaned back again and shook off her robe to lay down on it. She didn't want to tell them but Remus had told her secretly that Sirius's home life was not a good one and Sirius was still hoping for the approval and praise of his family, as well as watching out for his brother. Emma shifted the subject by sighing "I am so happy that the first period Tuesdays is free and we get to sleep in a bit because of Astronomy."

Lily nodded eagerly in agreement, remembering how tired she had always felt in Charms the next day. She saw something emerge from the water and let out a small shriek. Leah looked up "No worries, it is only the Giant Squid, it is nice."

Caitlin gasped "I thought he was only a rumor."

Emma shook her head "No the rumor is that he is Godrick Gryffindor."

"What?"

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that one Em. No worries Lil, I don't think it is true but there is a rumor that the Giant Squid is actually the animagi form of Godrick Gryffindor and he never died and spends his time close to the school he helped built."

Caitlin asked "Who came up with that?"

"Who knows, someone who was really bored." Lily laughed at that, at the bluntness of the two girls and how they were unapologetic about it. She excused herself from the group and started walking around the grounds, spotting Severus alone on a bench with a book. "Hello you, how has your first week been?"

He looked up, his hair falling into his eyes "Lily, please sit. My week was alright and yours?"

"It was good, I am happy to be back."

"I am happy that we have more classes together this year. We can meet up more."

"I would like that. How was your last week of summer? I was so busy, I wanted to write to you and hang out but I spent a huge amount of time with the girls and my parents."

"It was fine. I saw a picture of the Ministers Family in the paper, some garden party."

"Yes, I was there. It was beautiful."

Something dark came over Severus but he shrugged it off. "Did you see that awful prank those 4 idiots pulled? I saw them lurking around the groundkeeper's place earlier, probably scheming again."

"That prank was quite rude towards Professor McGonagall, but in the end nobody got hurt."

Snape made a guttural noise but then pointed to the 4 boys leaving the hut of Hagrid "I wonder what they were doing in there."

"Probably just visiting Hagrid."

"But why?"

Lily looked over "He is nice."

"I wonder about him, I heard he was expelled from Hogwarts."

"Where would you hear something like that?"

Severus shut his book and grinned "The Slytherin Common Room is just bursting with information."

Lily shuffled "Even if, it would be none of our business."

"If you only heard some of the things they say. Black is a huge traitor to the Slytherins, with how he treats his family."

"I met one of his family and I must say I was not impressed."

"Who did you meet?"

"That is not important, and let us change the subject, I don't feel like talking about that."

Severus shrugged again and Lily felt a slight unease about his feelings and attitudes of late. He had been growing distant and she had seen him a few times with some darker figures of Slytherin house. She was wondering what would happen to them. The 4 Gryffindor boys walked up to the castle and past them and Remus stopped and asked her where Leah was, she pointed her out at the lake and he left towards her while the other 3 walked into the castle.

Severus scoffed again "The way they all walk around thinking they have a right to know everything."

"He just asked where Leah was."

"But the way he felt he deserved to know."

"She is his best friend."

"I thought you were her best friend."

The green- eyed girl was growing agitated "You can have more than one! I have the girls and you."

Something shifted and he grew softer "You are right. I am sorry, I am still a bit rattled from my family. I am just glad to be back and to be able to spend some more time with you." She smiled at that and touched his hand slightly.

A week later Leah was lying upside down on Remus's bed watching the 4 boys scramble around like lunatics. "While it is amusing watching you guys go crazy, I am wondering what I am still doing here."

"You are Ryan's' sister."

"I am aware of that."

"You know what he is expecting of us."

She rolled off the bed "What makes you think he would tell me."

James grinned "Not tell! Intuition."

She huffed "I thought you once had an idea involving a fish."

"How low."

"Sirius, I thought they wanted something small! I don't know, I am supposed to help Emma get ready soon."

"But what will we do with the fish?"

"I don't know. Make it talk, make it pink, maybe taste like chocolate, have it throw up glitter… please just let me go help Emma, your pacing is making me nauseous. I will come back later, I promise."

Remus nodded, seeing the wheels turning in his friends' head "Yeah of course, come as soon as you can." She thanked him and ran off.

Sirius questioned "Can we actually do that?"

Peter asked "What?"

"Make it throw up glitter?"

Remus chocked on water "I doubt we are that advanced yet, I liked the idea with the chocolate."

"But how?" James questioned "If we are not advanced enough yet for throwing up glitter then we are also not able to make fish taste like chocolate. They want something small, let us think small!"

Two hours later Leah came back and saw the boys just sitting on the floor, looking defeated. "What is going on?"

Peter sighed "We can't come up with anything."

Sirius groaned "Because we can't think small!"

Leah laughed and excused herself, walking back to her dorm to ask Lily "If by any chance, you would pull a prank on somebody, what would you do?"

"I wouldn't prank anyone."

"Just for fun, something small and harmless."

"This is not for you, is it? It is for the boys?" Lily rationalized and was already deciding not to help.

"Come on, Lil. Just something small. You have to admit none of their pranks ever harmed anyone."

"No Leah. I will not join childish games."

"But we are children" Caitlin said from her bed. Leah grinned at her and Lily looked at her in fake betrayal.

"Yes Lily, we are children, thank you Cait. Come on, I know the Muggles also have pranks. Give us something unconventional, for us anyway."

The wheels were turning in her head and slowly she nodded "Alright, I know something. Give me a few days and I will bring it to the boys."

Leah was beaming and hugged her "Thank you! You are the best." She walked back to the boys' dorm and told them the good news.

"What is this?" Sirius asked, taking one of the circle shaped item.

Lily straightened up, sitting in the boys dorm "It is a whoopie cushion."

Peter was baffled "A what?"

"A whoopie cushion. As you can see it is inflated and when somebody sits on it, it will emit a farting noise."

"Genius. Muggles are geniuses!"

"Thank you Sirius, I will be sure to pass it along."

James looked up "Thank you Lily, what can we do for you now?"

She was shocked "What? Nothing. No I don't want anything from you."

"At least let us pay you for these. These are 30."

"It is fine, they are not expensive and my mom was happy to get them. My aunt works at a joke shop my grandfather owns and she gave them to her for almost nothing."

"Alright, well then if you ever need anything you have a wish free."

She nodded and turned, smiling shyly at Leah as she left.

Remus cleared his throat "This is great, it isn't too fancy or anything but we can up it a notch."

"How?" Peter asked.

"I mean what if the professors or the students see them? And afterwards they would just be laying there. What if they were disappearing?"

"And how would we do that?"

"Sirius help me in the library to look for something." Remus stood, already taking his Potion and Charms book with him.

"Why me? Can't Peter help? I am exhausted."

"You have almost the same grades as me in Potions and Charms, you will be able to help faster. You two" turning to James and Peter "start a list of people to prank; include the Prewetts'."


	25. Chapter 25

McGonagall was upset. "Alright, this is the fourth time this has happened. I want to know who has done this?" She looked around and narrowed her eyes at the four Gryffindor boys she had been suspecting ever since the first time it had happened. But they feigned nonchalance and nobody had seen them do anything, nor were there any traces of what they had been doing. She had even confiscated their wands once to see which spell they had used last but none that could emit a farting noise. She rather aggressively dismissed the class and people were still chuckling about it.

Leah was laughing and walked up to the boys "Now I thought it would be childish and get annoying after a while but honestly it is just really funny. Great job you guys."

"Thanks Leah, means a lot to us. And thank you again Lily." James said.

Leah added "Yes please thank your aunt for us. This is incredible. Muggles are geniuses."

Lily smiled "I will pass on the note. But this is the first and last time I will help. I don't want to get in any trouble."

"No worries, Lily. Even if we get caught, which we won't, we would never rat you out. This stays between us." Remus smiled at James words.

Sirius nodded "And remember if you ever need anything, come to us."

Lily nodded and mentioned that she wanted to grab a book before going to the Great Hall, the rest said they were going to meet her there.

X

The boys sat down at the table, grinning as Sirius walked past the teachers table to apparently get a good look at the House Points and discreetly put a Whoopie Cushion on Dumbledore's seat. He then grinned at Slughorn as he entered and moved to his friends. As Dumbledore entered and sat down the whole Hall was laughing. McGonagall looked furious but even Dumbledore chuckled.

Fabian and Gideon started walking towards them, laughing "Nice one guys."

"Thank you very much."

"Now how did you guys do that?"

"Ah Gideon, I don't know if we can trust you with this information."

Sirius nudged James "Now don't be like that, they are notorious for their pranks as well."

"Fine, from a Muggle joke shop, we got these Whoopie Cushions, which emit a fart noise once somebody sits on them and our genius Remus, here, made them invisible and once the noise came they would evaporate."

"Brilliant" Fabian grinned. "Now we are close to giving you what you want and deserve but first we need your help with a prank we have been planning for quite a while. Are you interested?"

All four nodded. "Brilliant, we will need to meet in one of the bigger hidden passageways" Gideon said to Fabian and James raised an eyebrow "Passageways?"

They nodded "There are a few. Some will lead you to different parts of the castle faster, some lead you to Hogsmeade. We won't show you those yet until you have experienced Hogsmeade for the first time next year but there is one, which is huge and can store everything we need in there."

Sirius was grinning "What is the plan?"

"We shouldn't talk about this here and it needs some planning, we should discuss it later."

James nodded and Remus added "We have about 15 of those Cushions left and then we are all yours."

Fabian regarded them real quick "Have you already learned the glass or cauldron transfiguration spell?"

Peter queaked "No, we started with the theory but we won't start the incantation until next week."

"Alright, we will be able to help with that and Aguamenti?"

"Gideon, that is a spell from year 5. We will need to show them that as well."

Gideon nodded and claimed it would be no problem. They saw the girls approaching, as they had gone to the bathroom before and had then waited for Lily so they changed the subject quickly. "Are any of you going to see the Quidditch tryouts?"

"Yes we are, our very own James is trying out for the team this year." Sirius beamed.

"Well Congratulations. We will be sure to show our support. Which position?"

"I always wanted to be a Chaser and since Kani, one of the Chasers last year graduated I thought I would give it a shot."

"Great! We were never really that into playing Quidditch but we will definitely watch. I think after that we can show you the place. Friday in the evening? Sound good?"

"Perfect. Thank you, guys." Remus smiled and the twins left.

Lily looked at the 4 boys closely "What was that all about?"

James grinned lazily "Just some help for Transfiguration." She narrowed her eyes but decided she really did not want to be a part of another one of their schemes.

X

"Why is it already so cold?" Leah whined, trying to pull her light jacket closer, wrapping her arms around her. Emma nodded, rubbing her hands together.

Lily and Caitlin chuckled, wearing thicker jackets and a scarf "Why did you wear such a light jacket and thin tights?"

Leah rolled her eyes "Because it is not yet winter. It should not be this cold yet, it is the first week of October for Hecate's sake."

"Also this might be the only time to wear fall clothing, before it gets way too cold and one has to huddle up in layers and layers."

"A scarf would not have hurt."

"Oh a scarf would not have worked with this skirt at all and then also nobody could see my beautiful necklace." Leah explained.

Remus chuckled "The necklace is nice but we are at the Quidditch field and nobody is seeing it."

"You just don't get it Remus." Sirius said, rubbing his legs "It is all about the completeness of the outfit. Also this necklace is superb. It matches her eyes and her jacket."

"Aw thank you Sirius." He nodded and then waved as Leah's sister Michelle was approaching.

"You seem cold."

Lily smiled "It is not time yet for winter clothes apparently."

"Ah I understand."

Leah whined "How are you not cold?"

"I am wearing one of mom's sweaters."

"Oh, I should have worn the one she got me. They are surprisingly warm for fall sweaters."

Michelle answered "It would not have worked with the skirt. And the jacket would then also clash because it is almost the same color."

"You're right. We should have brought blankets."

"What about the Warming Spell, did you forget that?"

"No but I am in no mood to hold my wand towards me the whole time."

Sirius agreed "If there ever were a way to just warm yourself without holding the wand the whole time that would be brilliant" he looked over at Remus, who nodded slightly and made a mental note to look into it at one point.

Michelle pulled out two pieces of parchment and murmured a spell and they transfigured into two blankets, handing them to Leah and Emma. They thanked her and snuggled up. Sirius shivered again and Leah relented and gave her a part of the blanket and they moved closer to each other. Sirius attempted to put his arm over her to keep her warmer as she had lost half of the blanket but he seemed reluctant before he shrugged and placed his arm over her shoulder.

Remus muttered "How come he gets part of the blanket but I don't?"

"There is not enough room!" Remus pulled out his wand and said "Engorgio." The blanket grew twice its size and the two boys snuggled in and Leah was warmed from all sides. Sirius sighed and cried out "Oh look there is James."

James sauntered out onto the field with a training broom, his father had promised to get him a new broom if he made the team this year and have it sent immediately. But for now James had to work with a training broom. Sirius could tell he was a bit nervous about it, having relied on a good broom during practices at home, but he faked it well enough that nobody else noticed. He pushed up from the ground and was floating beside the other contestants for the position of Chaser. He looked over to his friends and suddenly his face paled a bit and he waved to somebody to the side of them. Sirius looked over and saw Mr. Potter walking to them.

"Mr. Potter, how nice to see you."

He smiled "You too Sirius, Remus, Peter, Leah, Michelle. I am afraid I am a bit late, has it already started?"

Leah said "No not yet. These are my friends; Lily, Emma and Caitlin, girls this is Mr. Potter."

"Pleasure." He sat down and watched his son. James paled a bit but shrugged it off and tightened his grip on the broom. This years captain, a seventh year Sirius had already forgotten the name of, explained the importance of the position of the Chasers and how Quidditch was an important factor for Gryffindor and how every member was important. He went on to talk about what he wanted from his new Chasers and how to handle certain situations. Sirius sighed "Oh this is going to take forever. Why does he do that to every position?"

Emma answered "He wants us to freeze to death." Everyone laughed. After another 10 minutes he blew his whistle and 4 of the 13 flew up to test their worth. James was in the second group and was watching the others and started to chew on his nails. Mr. Potter laughed "A nervous habit he got from me, I am afraid."

Leah laughed and asked "How is Mrs. Potter and Jenny?"

"Good, they are currently at her mother's house to visit and will come back in 2 weeks. When Jenny heard that I was coming here she almost flooed back to visit Hogwarts and James but Annie convinced her otherwise."

"I miss Jenny, she is such a ray of sunshine and can bring James to his knees so easily." Sirius sighed.

"Believe me she misses you too. I hope we see you again this summer, you always have a room with us. Of course you are also welcome during Christmas and Easter."

"Of course I will come over. Thank you very much."

A whistle blew and James and three others flew up. James rubbed his eyes once, twice and then shook his head again. The captain blew his whistle again and the Quaffle was thrown up into the air, James and a 5th year dove for it and James missed it by a few inches. Sirius, Remus and Peter groaned. This went on for a while and James wasn't bad but he had missed the Quaffle quite a few times. Mr. Potter narrowed his eyes and adjusted his glasses. After 20 minutes James' turn was over and the group of Gryffindors watched the rest of the Tryouts, nobody cold anymore, talking softly about different players and some about the teams they supported. Even Lily joined with a few insights into Quidditch, now knowing a lot more than last year. She had secretly bought a book _Quidditch Through the Ages_ to learn more about the game her friends liked so much. A final whistle blew and the Captain called everyone back. He was talking to a few of them and some left the pitch. When he was talking to James the whole group held their breath, and as James walked back to the Changing Rooms everyone ran towards them. He came back out after 10 minutes, wearing his normal clothes and a disappointed look on his face.

Peter asked "And?" Sirius nudged him slightly but Peter didn't understand.

James shrugged "I didn't get it, I missed too many. I was off."

"No worries mate, you can always try again next year. Maybe today was just not your day." Sirius tried. James nodded slightly "Sorry you came all this way out here just to see this dad."

Mr. Potter smiled "Never apologize. You did well considering."

"Considering what?"

"Come I will explain on the way. I would like something warm to drink." James waved to his friends as he left with his father.

Emma said what everyone was thinking "I wonder what all of that was about."

Remus nodded "Maybe James will tell us tonight. I guess he is not getting a new broom."

X

After an early dinner, the 7 Gryffindors were one of the few in the Common Room when James entered.

"Mate what happened to you?"

"I was in the Hospital Wing for the last two hours."

Everyone was shocked "What? Why?"

"I need glasses. That is why I had such trouble today on the pitch. I couldn't see the Quaffle properly. Madam Pomfrey said it is a miracle that I was able to see everything for so long. Apparently my sight is really bad. Should have seen it coming. Both of my parents wear glasses."

Sirius was the first to break the silence "So when will you get them?"

"They will arrive in a few days."

"Well mate. I bet you will still look as dashing as now, so no worries there. And it is good that you found that out now before something serious came along and you couldn't see properly."

James laughed. Leah added "Yeah glasses are awesome. My mom would never admit it but she needs them too and she wears them when nobody is around and you know my dad wears his all the time. I bet I will need glasses one day. We can start a club."

James laughed again and some of the tension seeped out of him. He was thankful for his friends who understood. He flopped down on the empty lounge chair next to the couch which occupied Remus, Leah, Sirius and Caitlin, with Lily and Emma on the floor and Peter opposite of him in the other lounge chair. There was an ease and relaxedness about them all, which they all enjoyed. It seemed simple enough and at the same time very fulfilling. The portal opened and Elise Momsten walked in, Lily smiled at her and she seemed taken aback but smiled slightly. Leah looked over and saw her "Hi, would you like to join us?"

She seemed to think about it for a while but then shook her head "I still need to finish the Astronomy essay."

"Alright" Leah smiled. Elise smiled back and left.

Sirius stretched "I wonder about them sometimes."

Emma nodded "They do mostly keep to themselves. I guess some people just don't adapt well to others."

"I wonder why that name sounds so familiar to me."

"Which name?"

"Momsten."

Lily smirked "Because she is in our year, as is her brother."

"Haha, very funny. No I heard that name before."

Sirius sighed "Well it is not a Pureblood name that is for sure."

Lily looked taken aback "Why would you say that?"

Leah added "Cause they are not."

"How would you know?"

"There are very few Pureblood families left and most of us all know each other, having some relation to them."

Sirius added "Plus my parents forced me to learn all the names of Pureblooded families and which are the ones we should surround ourselves with."

Caitlin gulped "Really?"

"Oh yeah and that was considered fun in our household." He turned to Leah "Congrats by the way, you would be on the list of people I can be around."

"Really?"

"Your father was a Slytherin, your mother has connections to France, both from highly regarded and a long line of Pureblood families and your father is the Minister of Magic, of course my family would deem yours acceptable."

James added "I come from a long line of Potters and they have always been held in high regard."

"True but to my mother your family are Bloodtraitors."

"Oh yeah, that thing."

Leah shook her head "It shouldn't matter. We are all the same and all have the same potential."

Remus mumbled "In here." Leah looked at him and then looked down again.

Sirius registered what had happened and continued "But it does, doesn't it?"

James asked "What?"

"It does matter, at least in a way."

Everyone was silent for a moment and then Leah continued "I guess it does. We tend not to think about it but there are certain privileges and a way of thinking connected to being a Pureblood."

"The need to prove yourself." Sirius supplied.

"To live up to your family's name." James added.

Leah said softly "To not screw up and embarrass that name."

Lily looked at them shocked; they looked defeated in a way. Peter gasped "Are you saying that your lives are hard? Because let me tell you, even just being Half has gotten me treated badly at times."

Leah shook her head "No, not at all. Like I said there are plenty of privileges coming with it but as you struggle with your bloodstatus, so do we. But differently. There is a lot planted in our heads on how to behave, even if like my or James' family see it simpler and don't care that much, there is still that need to be accepted and approved by the whole family. I still sometimes see my dad look for the approval of my great- grandmother when she is around, by supplying things which are considered mainly Pureblood. He wouldn't care of course if any of us married someone not 'pure' but I can tell he and his family were relieved that my mom is also a Pureblood. And believe it or not so were my mom's family. It is hard to understand."

Lily asked "So if the time were to come, would you consider marrying someone 'pure' as you just put it?" Like Leah she had used air quotes around the word.

Leah was silent for a while "I don't know. I mean it would mean life would be easier for a while with my great- granny but at the same time I want to marry for love. Like my parents and grandparents. My great- granny was married off, they fell in love over time of course but she only had my grandmother, so my dad's mom, and her siblings surrounded by other Purebloods and my granny fell in love with a Pureblood, who is actually a distant cousin of hers, like very distant but he then took her name to continue the Parker name. I honestly don't know. And who is there even? The Malfoys? Their son is too old and involved with the Blacks. Who else is there?"

"The Potters?"

"Right okay, James any good looking cousins?"

"Most of them too old or too young."

Sirius supplied "Weasley?"

"Right, they have some. But I remember being somewhat related to them. And I don't know any, there aren't that many I know and none currently our age at Hogwarts. Next?"

"Shacklebolt?"

"None our age. And way too closely related. My grandmother's sister on my mom's side is married to a Shacklebolt so no."

"Rosier? Rowle?"

"No thank you, too dark. Same for Parkinson, Nott, Goyle, Lestrange, Carrow."

"Longbottom or Prewett?"

"Longbottom only has 3 children I think and all of them too old and the others already involved with someone else. Prewett? Well maybe."

"James or me?"

Leah laughed "My great- granny would probably really love that."

Emma rubbed her arms "Let's just drop it. It isn't important right now and no amount of talking about it will change anything today."

Remus sighed "You are right. Sorry I provoked a bit." He gave Leah a half hug and she leaned into him.

The portrait swung open again and Fabian and Gideon came inside "Hello all of you."

Gideon continued "We need to meet some other time. Filch is lurking around and we can't risk getting seen. We will contact you soon."

James nodded and Lily gasped "You said you guys were working on something for Transfiguration."

James gulped and Remus answered "We are but we need a room to practice in. No worries Lily, everything is fine."


	26. Chapter 26

Hey you guys

I am so sorry for the long wait. I was really uninspired, mostly due to the fact that I lost someone really close to me and was involved in the court case and everything. I am currently writing one more chapter and want to start updating regularly again. Ironically I wrote parts of their sixth year before I even came close to the third year. But oh well

I will be back soon with some new content.


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